9 Tips to Maximize Your Charitable Giving: Donations & Tax Benefits Explained

Money Girl

Macmillan Holdings, LLC

Investing, Education, Business, Entrepreneurship, How To

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Did you know that Americans donate over $374 billion annually to charities? Giving back feels great, but did you know you can also maximize your tax savings in the process? In this episode, Laura shares nine expert tips to help you give smarter, whether it’s understanding IRS rules, choosing the right organizations, or leveraging tax-efficient strategies like donor-advised funds.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Giving USA says the nation's total charitable giving is over $557 billion, and individuals give 67% of that amount, which is more than $374 billion.
0:19.2	Giving always makes you feel good, but the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS,
0:24.6	sweetens the pot with money-saving charitable tax deductions to encourage more giving.
0:30.6	That means there are IRS rules you should know to maximize your charitable giving.
0:35.4	This podcast will review nine tips to give the most and receive
0:40.8	the maximum tax advantages for yourself. Welcome back to episode 912 of Money Girl. I'm Laura
0:47.5	Adams, an award-winning author, spokesperson, speaker, founder of the Money Stack. That's my substack
0:53.9	newsletter and host of this podcast with over 43 million downloads.
0:58.9	If you enjoy the free content, we love creating for you. Please take a moment to rate and review the show in your podcast app.
1:05.5	And if you've got a question about money, you can leave it on our voicemail at 302, 364-0308. And you can always visit laura d adams.com
1:16.2	to email me directly and learn more about my books, courses, and the free Moneystack
1:21.6	newsletter. All right, so let's talk about tax deductible donations. A charitable donation is a small or large gift like cash or goods
1:31.8	that you make to any individual or organization. However, for a gift to be tax deductible,
1:39.3	you must have donated it to an IRS recognized charity. Also, you must itemize deductions on your tax
1:47.1	return. So remember those two things. It's got to be made to an IRS recognized or eligible
1:53.6	charity, and you've got to itemize deductions on your tax return in that year that you want to
2:00.0	claim the deduction. And the charitable
2:02.5	deduction applies to all gifts you make to various eligible organizations throughout the year.
2:08.3	You can typically deduct eligible donations that total up to 60% of your adjusted gross
2:16.3	income or AGI. So that's the upper limit. However, depending on what you
2:21.9	contribute, so the type of donation and the type of organization that you give it to, you may be
2:29.2	limited to less. However, contributions exceeding any annual limits can be carried over to future tax years
	...

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