Optimize your charitable giving
A convenient online giving account with great benefits
Altruly is a Canadian Donor Advised Fund with the needs of modern donors in mind.
What is a Donor Advised Fund?
Think of it as a savings account for your charitable giving. Transfer funds into the account and get an immediate tax-receipt. While you're deciding which charity should get a donation, we invest the proceeds to increase your charitable impact.
Reasons why an Altruly Giving Account > Traditional Giving
There are many, but people rave about these.
Consolidation
Just one receipt for all your giving. A tidy year-end summary of your giving activity is downloadable for easy filing at tax-time.
Growth
Increase your charitable impact by investing your contributions in a diversified portfolio.
Privacy
Donor privacy is built in. Your information is protected, so you'll get less solicitations from charities looking for your money.
Budgeting
Tools that keep you on track with zero effort. Set a giving goal and we'll help you make sure you don't over-spend or under-spend.
How it works
Giving to charity through a Donor Advised Fund is a little different, but the end-result is the same. Those differences are what make it better for you.
Step 1: Add funds, let it grow
Open an account for free. Add funds to your giving account by credit card or cheque - this is your donation and you get an immediate tax-receipt (even before you decide which charity gets the money!). We conservatively invest your donation while you make your decision, making your impact greater.
Step 2: Disburse privately to any Canadian Charity
Direct any available account balance to any of the 85,000+ registered charities in Canada. No payment information is required. There's no tax receipt when you disburse, only when you add funds to your account. We keep your donor information private from the charities you disburse to.
Step 3: Rinse and Repeat
We keep track of all your donations and disbursals, so you'll always know what you've spent at any given time without any cumbersome spreadsheets or combing through your bank statements. At tax time, download your giving summary and tax-receipts all from one place. They're backed up and stored digitally for easy access at any time.
About giving with Altruly
When you contribute to your Altruly giving account, you are making a donation to a Canadian registered charity: The Altruly Foundation. We accept your donations, issue immediate tax-receipts for the value of your contribution and disburse the proceeds to the Canadian Registered Charity of your choosing, without sharing your personal information with them, when you decide to do so.
The Altruly Foundation is a Registered Charity (#755780095RR0001) and is designated a Public Foundation by the Canada Revenue Agency. We strive to make charitable giving hassle-free, so that you can continue to donate as generously as you always have, with more convenience (both when giving and at tax-time) and without annoying, needless and intrusive solicitations. Our convenient online format offers an easy way to consolidate, budget and manage your annual charitable giving right from your mobile phone, tablet or laptop.
Donor Advised Funds are not a novel idea. It's a vehicle that has always made planned giving easy and convenient. The Altruly Foundation is taking a fresh approach to the old concept, but with the needs of today's donors in mind.
Benefits
Deferral
Ever get close to year end and realize that you didn't reach your giving goal? No problem. Fund your giving account on December 31, get a tax-receipt for this tax year. Then, decide where the money goes later.
Speed
With default profile information stored, donating is super quick. You won't need to tediously enter your name, address, email and payment information every time you want to fund your account or disburse to a charity.
Consolidation
Keep all your donation information and tax receipts in one place. Download a summary of all of your donations to make things easy at tax time.
Privacy
We keep your donor information private from the charities you donate to. So you can rest assured that you wont get bothered by email, phone, snail-mail or at your door in relation to any disbursals you made from your giving account.
Suggestions
When you share your giving interests to us, we will send you occasional notification suggestions with ideas for where you can disburse money from your giving account. You can accept, decline, defer to turn off suggestions altogether.
$1 minimums
You can contribute as little as $1 to your giving account. And yes, we will issue a tax receipt a $1 contribution. The disbursal minimum is $20.
Convenient payment options
Add funds to your account with any major credit card or by sending us a cheque.
Secure
Secure payments and data encryption to protect your data from the bad guys.
Never Lose a Receipt
Tax receipts never get lost when they're safely stored and accessible forever all in one spot. Consolidate your donation tax documents into one account to eliminate your search at tax-time.
One site for all donations
No more searching for the right site to make an online donation. You'll never need to input personal or payment information into another website to donate ever again. Consolidating in one site means you are reduce your data footprint and protect your privacy.
Manage a giving budget
Set a giving budget for the year, and stick to it! By funding your giving account, you'll know exactly what you can afford to give throughout the year. Don't overspend, or underspend either. It's nice to be generous to charities!
Mobile, of course
Access your giving account directly from your mobile phone, tablet or laptop. Funding your account is quick and disbursing is even quicker.
FAQ
What is The Altruly Foundation?
The Altruly Foundation is a registered charity in Canada (Reg. #755780095RR0001). We operate an online donor advised fund that makes it easy for Canadians to consolidate and budget their annual giving in one place. Your Altruly giving account is always accessible from your mobile phone, tablet or laptop for whenever you are inspired to give.
Can I withdraw funds that are in my account?
This is an important one. No, you cannot *ever* withdraw any funds from your Altruly giving account. Funds contributed to your account are an irrevocable gift to our organization. Once your donated funds have been transferred to us and a tax-receipt is issued, the funds become sole property of The Altruly Foundation. We will invest the proceeds of your donation and it may appreciate, but the donor has no claim on any of available account balance amount or any capital gains that may be earned on the invested amount. While we often refer to this giving vehicle as being like a "savings account for your charitable giving", it is an account that can never be withdrawn upon. We can only accept instructions to disburse to any qualified donee in Canada.
Do I get a tax receipt for my donation?
When you contribute to your Altruly giving account, you get a tax receipt for the full value of the amount you paid. We issue tax receipts for contributions as small as $1. This creates an available balance in your giving account. You can disburse as little as $20. There are no tax receipts for disbursals.
How long can funds sit in my account?
We want to encourage active giving from your Altruly account (that's the point of charitable giving, isn't it). We require at least 5% disbursal of the average balance over the course of the year. If your account is inactive, we reserve the right to disburse an amount to satisfy this requirement to a qualified donee that you have disbursed to in the past, or another, based on our sole discretion.
Why should I use a Donor Advised Fund for my giving?
There are a number of reasons why giving through a donor advised fund makes good sense. First and foremost, its a great budgeting tool. Set your giving budget for the year and disburse it
- Immediate tax benefit and deferral of the disbursal decision - Donate when it’s convenient and choose which charity or qualified donee will receive the money later
- Consolidation – one tax receipt for all of your giving
- Anonymity - keep your identity private from charities who may contact you needlessly or monetize data
- Capital appreciation – your donation grows tax-free while you decide which charity receives it
- Flexibility - Donate cash, publicly- and privately-traded stocks, real estate and more
What are the Altruly Fees?
Payment processing
Donations by Credit Card
2.9% + $0.30 / transaction
Just like any time you use a credit card online, there are fees for processing payments. We don't see any of that money - it just goes to the guys that make it easy to pay online. A credit card is the best to way fund your account with smaller payments (about $1000 or less).
Donations by Cheque
$20 / cheque
This is about as old school as we get here at Altruly. Send us a cheque and we'll deposit the amount and send you a notification when the amount clears in our account. A cheque is the best way to fund your account with larger payments (more than $1000).
Disbursals
There are no fees to disburse funds to any qualified donee or charity in Canada.
Account Maintenance
0.5% / year
Charities have expenses just like any other business does. We have to pay for stuff like website servers and security (to protect your data), bank accounts, rent, audits, insurance and so on. To pay for these necessities, we charge an account maintenance fee of 0.5% per year. That's $5 a year for every $1,000 held in your account. Seriously, it's no money maker - just enough to keep the lights on.
Still have questions? Talk to us.
We want to help you achieve your giving goals using a convenient mobile-friendly format. Got questions? We have answers.