Fidelity Charitable, a donor advised fund, is making it possible for donors give bitcoin to charities, Fidelity Charitable announced Wednesday.
Fidelity is using a provider, Coinbase Inc., to convert bitcoin into assets that can be donated to charity through a donor advised fund, Fidelity says. The donor can obtain favorable tax treatment by donating bitcoin that is held as capital assets for more than a year and the donor does not incur any transaction fee for the donation.
“Enabling donors to contribute bitcoin to their donor-advised funds is the latest example of Fidelity Charitable’s commitment to making it as easy as possible for donors to support the charities they care about with the assets at their disposal,” says Matt Nash, senior vice president of donor engagement for Fidelity Charitable. “There are tax advantages to donating long-term appreciated assets, and that ultimately means more money to charity.”
The majority of contributions to Fidelity Charitable are made in capital assets, such as publicly traded securities as well as private business shares and real estate, which many nonprofits find costly, time-consuming or nearly impossible to accept, Fidelity Charitable says. Donors who contribute the assets to a donor-advised fund simplify the donation for both themselves and the end-recipient charity.