Donor-advised funds can be a great way to give

The fastest-growing forms of philanthropy is the donor-advised fund. These funds grew 25 percent last year, to $23.3-billion, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The funds serve as conduits between donors and the charities they want to support. Why would you need one? Largely for the tax advantages, particularly if you want to use appreciated real estate, securities or an interest in a business to make your charitable contribution. Say you've got a piece of property you bought for $100,000 and you're going to sell for $500,000 and you'd like to give $100,000 of the proceeds to charity. You can give the donor-advised fund a one-fifth interest in the property before you sell it, avoiding capital gains on that amount. When you sell the property, the fund gets the $100,000 and you get the charitable deduction. The fund then holds the money until you instruct it to parcel it out to the charities of your choice. You could, for example, use it to pay $10,000 a year to your church for the next 10 years. Typically the fund would invest the money and as it grew, you would have even more to give to charity. It's a slick concept.

Tampa Bay donor-advised funds include the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund, Pinellas Community Foundation and Christian Legacy Foundation.