{"items": [{"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917619925192", "anchor": "fb-917619925192", "service": "fb", "text": "(more details and links to things if you click through to the full post)", "timestamp": "1514068234"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917621072892", "anchor": "fb-917621072892", "service": "fb", "text": "Jeff, you talk about a donation you would like to make to Julia's employer, to support their work, even though they are not a 501(c)3, so donations to it aren't tax deductible. Can't you simply have Julia take a voluntary temporary cut in pay, effectively donating in a tax deductible manner?", "timestamp": "1514069003"}, {"author": "Taymon", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917621072892&reply_comment_id=917622874282", "anchor": "fb-917621072892_917622874282", "service": "fb", "text": "→ CEA (Julia's employer) is a 501(c)(3) and donations to it are tax deductible. However, the startup project they want to donate to is not. The question is whether, if they make a tax-deductible earmarked donation to CEA, CEA can then regrant the funds to the startup project.", "timestamp": "1514070189"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917621072892&reply_comment_id=917622959112", "anchor": "fb-917621072892_917622959112", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Right. CEA might or might not be up for that; we've only just started talking to them.", "timestamp": "1514070226"}, {"author": "Jess", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917639241482", "anchor": "fb-917639241482", "service": "fb", "text": "Nice post Jeff. Is anyone keeping an up-to-date list of donation write-ups like this one?", "timestamp": "1514078500"}, {"author": "Ross", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917639241482&reply_comment_id=917646576782", "anchor": "fb-917639241482_917646576782", "service": "fb", "text": "→ (commenting to see responses)", "timestamp": "1514082442"}, {"author": "Elizabeth", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917641746462", "anchor": "fb-917641746462", "service": "fb", "text": "Why borrow to give more instead of just waiting?", "timestamp": "1514079540"}, {"author": "Avi", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917641746462&reply_comment_id=917646681572", "anchor": "fb-917641746462_917646681572", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I was going to ask this too. It seems a little risky to the well-being of Jeff and his family to borrow money to donate, vs donating the same amount later assuming no financial hardship.", "timestamp": "1514082531"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917641746462&reply_comment_id=917648897132", "anchor": "fb-917641746462_917648897132", "service": "fb", "text": "→ A bunch of reasons:
* You can only deduct 50%, so if we donated more next year instead it would be taxed more heavily.
* Taxes are probably going down for us, so donating more this year means more saved in taxes than we pay in interest, by a bunch.
* Having our donation numbers stay at 50% every year is more legible. Having to explain why the numbers bounce around is not ideal if we're in a hard-to-communicate-subtlety media situation.
* We're really very likely to have the money in the next few months.", "timestamp": "1514084138"}, {"author": "David Chudzicki", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917646636662", "anchor": "fb-917646636662", "service": "fb", "text": "\"There's a good chance this will end up being an early 2018 donation instead of a 2017 one.\"
Would that mean it's a \"2017 donation\" you happened to make on 2018? Or would the other stuff take up the 2017 donation budget in 2017, making this come from the 2018 donation budget?", "timestamp": "1514082507"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917646636662&reply_comment_id=917648403122", "anchor": "fb-917646636662_917648403122", "service": "fb", "text": "→ If it happens in 2018 it will come from 2018's budget.", "timestamp": "1514083848"}, {"author": "Mad", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/917618822402?comment_id=917661826222", "anchor": "fb-917661826222", "service": "fb", "text": "Not sure if this is a useful tip, but it's worth knowing about \"fiscal sponsorship\". This is how one generally should set up smaller projects to receive 501(c)(3) tax exemption. There are organizations that specialize in providing this option to smaller projects (e.g. Tides Foundation, Software in the Public Interest).
It is a PITA to run a 501(c)(3). Do not recommend. Threshold for deciding to do this should probably be quite high, like $500k or $1M.", "timestamp": "1514094398"}]}