We are a charitable advisory that helps investment advisors to empower their clients to give more impactfully.
One
Increase Funding Opportunities
We increase the number of ways that your clients can provide funding into their tax deductible vehicles. Our team has experience with hundreds of complex asset transfers.
Two
Enhance Giving & Investing
In addition to traditional US-based charitable giving, we help your clients to easily grant abroad and participate in global impact investments that can provide returns into their giving accounts.
Three
Create More Impact
The UI Charitable Advisors’ leadership team has over 100 years of social impact experience. We help your client realize the greatest impact in their giving because we walk this talk ourselves.
Why Choose UI Charitable Advisors?
We work with you to use the following tools to help your clients:
Donor-Advised Fund
Complex Asset Transfers
Fiscal Sponsorships
Impact Investing
Field of Interest Funds
Pooled Community Funds
Foundation Management
Our Flagship Product: The UI Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)
Transaction One (in-between steps one and three): A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) is a giving vehicle that allows donors to make a charitable contribution with an immediate tax deduction.
Step Three: The funds are held and invested in the DAF by the donor and/or their representative such as a financial advisor.
Transaction Two (Grants): The donor, now the donor-advisor of the DAF, determines when to make a grant from their DAF. The donor-advisor can easily grant to any US 501(c)(3) charity and with the UI DAF can also easily grant to international charities and other social impact organizations, domestic or abroad. The latter is not allowed by many DAFs.
Transaction Two (Investments): Contrary to most DAFs again, the UI DAF allows donor-advisors to participate in impact investments—usually recoverable grants, loans, and equity—with social impact organizations worldwide. All returns from these investments return to the donor-advisor’s DAF.
The UI DAF is the world’s most flexible, providing three key benefits to you and your client.
Maintain Charitable Asset Oversight
Through our open architecture, you can select your preferred custodian (where the DAF’s investments are held), and investment strategies. Investment advisors, whether fee-only or fee based, maintain charitable funds within their entire asset pool, providing greater connection and success for the advisor.
Achieve Greater Financial Success
Study after study demonstrates that investment advisors who focus on their client’s philanthropic goals retain their customers longer and receive higher client satisfaction.
Offer Your Clients Extreme Flexibility
We provide extreme flexibility for you and your client throughout your entire philanthropy journey. This starts with flexibility in donating both normal and complex assets into the DAF. It continues as your client uses their DAF funds with domestic US charities, with charities operating abroad, and with impact investments happening throughout the world.
John Curtis
US Congressman
“Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the associates at University Impact and am impressed with the commitment to impact that they have. There are so many incredible companies, making a difference, in need of funding and now I know where to find them. It’s with UI.”
Richard Winwood
Managing Partner at Ridge Rim Partners
“What is shocking is the reality that it’s gonna take over 5 trillion dollars to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goal objectives set for 2030. There’s a lot of money out there, but it’s not yet allocated to these businesses that provide a more sustainable approach to how customers and citizens consume and act on the day-to-day.”
Alisée de Tonnac
CEO of Seedstars
“One of the powerful things that University Impact does is uncouple the fees otherwise combined at commercial DAF hosts. Large institutions use DAFs as a trojan horse to then layer hidden fees on DAF holders – such as mutual fund and transaction fees.”
Michael Folker
Head of Advisor Development at TownSquare Capital
“Now this is critical: many times in the nonprofit world, we go awry not because we expect too much of those we’re trying to help, but because we expect too little. Oftentimes, when we’re about giveaways and grants to solve problems for people, we actually cripple those that we’re trying to assist. What I’ve seen at University Impact is that they find great opportunities and provide sustainable investing to solve problems.”
Joseph Grenny
New York Times Best Selling Author & Chairman of The Other Side Academy
Donor-Advised Fund Tax Deduction
DAFs provide an immediate tax deduction for donors while providing them with the flexibility to donate at their convenience.
There are many people that could benefit from a DAF that are currently not taking advantage of the opportunity. These are some situations where a DAF can be especially beneficial:
- Liquidity event (selling business, appreciated stock, etc.)
- Unexpected income (bonus, inheritance, etc.)
- Charitable bunching (popular with new tax code)
- Passionate about solving social problems
- Currently making donations to multiple charities (simplifies giving)
- Generational giving – younger generations are focused on making impact
DAFs vs Private Foundations
DAFs were designed to help individuals in their charitable giving. DAFs have lower administrative fees and higher tax deductibility.
| DAF | Private Foundation | |
|---|---|---|
| Fees & Setup |
- Low administration fees and startup costs - Min. contribution = $5,000 |
- High administrations fees and startup costs - Min. contribution $1M + legal costs |
| Causes to support |
- Cannot make grants to individuals - Allows grants to 501(c)(3) - Allows grants to international nonprofits - Allows grants to for-profit entities for charitable purposes with certain procedures |
- Grants to individuals - Allows grants to 501(c)(3) - Allows grants to international nonprofits - Allows grants to for-profit entities for charitable purposes with certain procedures |
| Tax benefits |
- Up to 60% AGI tax deductibility (cash) - Up to 30% AGI tax deductibility (public securities) - All securities deducted at Fair Market Value |
- Up to 30% AGI tax deductibility (cash) - Up to 20% AGI tax deductibility (public securities) - Securities deducted at the Cost Basis (no appreciation) |
| Succession plan |
- Can name individuals, businesses, or charities as successor advisors for the DAF |
- Successors and officers confirmed only by vote of the board |
| Distributions |
- No required distributions |
- IRS requires 5% distributions assets per year |
| Anonymity |
- Anonymous contributions possible |
- All contributions are made public |
We Can Help Create Your Client’s Personalized Impact Strategy
UI Charitable Advisors actively curates opportunities for our donor-advisors based on their philanthropic strategy, including factors such as impact areas, geographic preference, and investment preferences. We are like a personal family foundation, activating your giving in thoughtful and innovative ways.
Sourced Opportunities Based on Donor’s Impact Preferences
Donors choose their preferences:
- Desired financial returns
- Geographies of interest
- Preferred UN SDG targets
Donors have option of:
- Select individual investments or strategic grants
- Make investment through a UI Charitable Advisors Fund
Donors will receive:
- Tailored giving and investment opportunities
- Impact reports
- Impact Financial reports
How Do We Think About Impact?
UI Charitable Advisors uses the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as targets for impact. These goals were created by the UN to focus efforts towards solving the most pressing problems afflicting people around the world.
Student associates perform research to identify and compare opportunities for creating social impact. These research reports then guide the opportunity sourcing and screening process to ensure companies meet best-in-class standards and practices for scaling social impact.
Partner with UI Charitable Advisors
We partner with nonprofits and social impact companies to make large social and environmental change possible where it is needed most.
Individuals and Family Offices
We partner with you to help you accomplish your impact and philanthropic goals. Our team will help you craft a personalized philanthropic impact strategy. UI Charitable Advisors then focuses on actively curating impact investment and strategic grant opportunities based on your impact, geographic, and investment preferences. You can think of us as your personal “family foundation” team, helping you to find and fund the most impactful organizations worldwide. We also perform all the financial and impact due diligence for you and submit it to our Investment Committee.
Financial Advisors
The first place many people turn to when thinking about philanthropy and impact investing is their trusted financial advisor. Many of your clients may already be contributing to social ventures and nonprofits they care about. University Impact works with donors to help them create a plan to achieve greater impact, identify the best impact opportunities, provide due diligence and ongoing tracking.
The UI Charitable Advisors team is available to make presentations on Donor-Advised Funds, charitable giving, and impact investing strategies at your firm or help support a client event. We will work with you to make the experience in social impact engaging, meaningful, and simple.
UI Charitable Advisors hosts educational events and seminars for professional advisors on topics relating to charitable giving, impact investing, impact measurement, and your clients’ philanthropic needs. Our advisor newsletter includes information about upcoming events, charitable giving legislation, articles by experts, and updates on our latest activities. If you would like to receive this newsletter, please sign up below.
Email contact@uicharitable.org to set up a call.
Nonprofit and Social Ventures
UI Charitable Advisors is always looking for impactful companies and nonprofits around the world to join us and our donors in creating meaningful change.
If your organization is seeking funding click here to see our criteria:
Companies that meet our criteria will undergo due diligence so UI Charitable Advisors can determine if funding would be appropriate.
Submit information here.
Email: contact@uicharitable.org
Address: 3507 N University Ave, Suite 125, Provo, UT 84604