You and your charitable giving are the primary concern at the Community Foundation of Western Nevada. We are tirelessly devoted to improving the lives of residents, and adamant about working with charities to helping fund their essential work and help them to be as efficient as possible, it is your giving that makes it all happen. We never forget that it is your generous philanthropy that makes our community engagement possible.
When we received a call from one of our fundholders in late December asking if we could accept gifts of Bitcoin we were delighted! Although the Community Foundation had never received a gift of Bitcoin, we worked hard to learn how to handle cryptocurrency. The steps involved are:
- Receive the currency
- Value it for charitable gift purposes
- Sell it
- Deposit the proceeds of the sale into US dollars in one of our accounts.
And, we only had a few days in which to do this gift.
You may recall that Bitcoin shot up to $16,000 in value in late December. As I write this today it is slightly under $11,000 per coin. Our donor wanted to make the gift and have it sold at the highest value. Major kudos are in order for Melissa Tschanz, Community Foundation Controller, who spent hours learning how to handle this transaction. What I am most pleased to share, is that the donor was able to gift the bitcoin, capturing a very large charitable gift deduction, and we were able to sell the coins at the $16,000 value. The proceeds of the gift, several hundred thousand dollars, are in U.S. dollars in a checking account, ready to grant. Mission Accomplished!
Along with the bitcoin gift, we established policy for handling gifts of cryptocurrency and are amending our gift acceptance policy accordingly. We have accounts in place and are ready for more cryptocurrency gifts. Each unique gift is a learning opportunity that helps the Community Foundation become more sophisticated and professional. We welcome inquiries about contributing unusual assets and complex charitable gift arrangements. Not everyone is as fortunate as the investors who had acquired bitcoin when it was under $50 a coin, but we can all use whatever assets, monetized or personal, we have to help others in ways that are meaningful to each of us.
If you’d like to explore a charitable gift idea, please give me a call. We are here to help you Care, Connect, and Engage.
Chris Askin, President, and CEO
Connecting people who care with
causes that matter