Charitable planning is the structured use of donor-advised funds, charitable remainder trusts, and appreciated-asset strategies to capture the deduction, remove assets from the estate, and let generosity compound over time. Kotini & Kotini coordinates those structures across your tax and estate plan so the gift produces the most it can for both the cause and the household funding it.
Charitable planning is the strategic design of how, when, and through what structure you give, so the gift produces both the maximum charitable impact and the largest legal tax benefit. It sits at the intersection of tax planning, estate planning, and wealth strategy, and it is the difference between writing a check in December and structuring a gift that captures the income tax deduction, removes appreciated assets from your estate, gets your family involved, and continues to fund the causes you care about long after the giving year is over.
Most high-earning families already give. Few of them give through a structure. The difference shows up in two places. The first is taxes: a structured gift can produce a deduction many multiples larger than the same dollar amount in unstructured cash, because the right vehicle handles appreciated assets, bunches deductions into the highest-income years, and pulls the gift out of a taxable estate. The second is continuity: a structured gift keeps giving for a decade or longer, while a check ends the day it clears.
You would give anyway. Charitable planning is the work of making sure that generosity does the most it can do, for both the cause and the household funding it.
There is no single best vehicle for charitable giving. The right one depends on what you're giving (cash, appreciated stock, a building, a business interest), when you want the deduction, how involved you want your family to be, and how the gift fits inside your broader tax and estate plan. Our Estate & Legacy Planning hub covers how charitable strategy coordinates with your estate planning documents and trust planning structures. Here is what each major vehicle is built for.
A DAF is the flexible default for most high-earning families. You contribute cash or appreciated assets in a high-income year, take the full deduction that year, and then recommend grants to qualified charities over time. DAFs handle appreciated stock gifts cleanly, support bunching strategies (concentrating multiple years of giving into one deduction event), and keep your family involved in the granting decisions year after year.
These are the structures to use when a gift needs to do double duty. A CRT lets you contribute an appreciated asset, defer the capital gains tax, draw an income stream for a term of years, and have the remainder go to charity. A CLT runs the other direction (charity gets the income stream, your heirs get the remainder), and it pairs well with estate-tax mitigation in years where the lifetime exemption is being used aggressively. CRT and CLT mechanics live alongside our broader trust planning work.
A private foundation is the right answer for families giving at a scale that justifies a permanent institution, with the staff and operating overhead a foundation requires. Foundations offer the most control (you set the mission, the grant-making process, the family governance), and they sit inside a different IRS regulatory frame than DAFs. We help families decide whether a foundation actually fits, or whether a DAF gets them 90% of the outcome with 10% of the operational load.
For clients over age 70½, QCDs route IRA distributions directly to qualified charities and bypass the income line entirely. For anyone holding appreciated stock, real estate, or business interests, donating the asset (rather than selling it and donating the proceeds) avoids the capital gains tax and produces a deduction based on the full fair-market value.
Most families think of charitable giving as a deduction line on the tax return. That's accurate, and incomplete. Charitable planning reduces tax liability across at least four mechanisms, and a coordinated plan pulls each lever in the year it produces the biggest benefit.
The first lever is the income tax deduction itself. For cash gifts to public charities, the deduction can run up to 60% of adjusted gross income; for appreciated assets, up to 30%. A coordinated plan times those deductions to land in the highest-bracket years, often through DAF bunching: contributing five years of normal giving into one year, taking a deduction far above the standard deduction, and then granting from the DAF on a normal cadence.
The second lever is capital gains avoidance. When you donate appreciated stock or a long-held asset directly (instead of selling it first), the gain never hits your return. The charity receives the full pre-tax value, and you receive a deduction based on the fair-market value. The same logic powers CRT structures around appreciated property, including business interests heading toward a capital event.
The third lever is estate-tax efficiency. Assets transferred to a DAF, a CRT, a CLT, or a private foundation leave the taxable estate. For households approaching or exceeding the federal lifetime gift and estate tax exemption (scheduled to sunset at the end of 2026 under current law), charitable structuring is one of the cleanest ways to reduce the taxable estate while still directing the assets to causes the family chose.
The fourth lever is income smoothing across multi-year tax events. A CRT can spread the recognition of a large gain across decades. A CLT can offset estate-tax exposure in the years it would otherwise hit hardest. These are the structures we run against your Advanced Tax Planning calendar so the charitable decisions happen before December 31, alongside the rest of the personal tax strategies work that drives our $54,000 average client tax savings. Meaningful charitable structuring is one of the biggest contributors to that figure for the families it fits.
Inside our Virtual Family Office model, charitable strategy doesn't live in a silo. Your existing CPA stays your CPA and files the returns, including the qualified-appraisal documentation that gifts above the IRS threshold require. Partner attorneys draft the trust and foundation documents in their licensed capacity. Your wealth manager handles the mechanics on the appreciated-asset side, coordinated through our wealth management practice. K&K's charitable & legacy partner inside the VFO network leads the structural design, and our team quarterbacks the whole conversation so the strategy moves as one coordinated plan.
The 50/30/20 rule is a giving framework some families use to allocate annual charitable dollars: 50% to core mission charities they support consistently, 30% to community causes and local organizations, and 20% to exploratory or one-time giving. It's a budgeting framework (not an IRS rule), and it pairs well with a DAF, which lets you fund all three buckets in one deduction event.
Yes. You can name a charity as the beneficiary of an annuity, fund a charitable gift annuity directly, or transfer ownership during your lifetime. Each path produces a different tax outcome and different income consequences for the donor. K&K structures these gifts so the tax benefit, the income stream, and the charitable impact all line up with the rest of your plan.
Non-cash donations of property valued above $5,000 generally require a qualified appraisal and IRS Form 8283 filed with the return. The rule covers appreciated stock, real estate, business interests, and similar gifts. K&K coordinates the appraisal documentation with your CPA and the recipient charity so the deduction stands up to scrutiny.
The $27.40 figure is a popular reference framing, not an IRS rule. It represents what $10,000 of annual charitable giving works out to per day ($10,000 divided by 365). The point is illustrative: consistent daily generosity adds up to a meaningful annual deduction, especially when it runs through a structured vehicle rather than the standard deduction.
or call (804) 372-8307. The mutual-fit conversation walks through your current giving, your appreciated assets, your estate exposure, and where a structured charitable plan would actually move the needle for both the cause and your tax picture.
Important disclosure: Kotini & Kotini does not provide legal advice and does not draft legal documents. Trust, foundation, and other charitable legal services are provided by credentialed partner attorneys operating in their licensed capacity. Tax filing and qualified-appraisal documentation are handled by your CPA or by CPA partners coordinated through the K&K Virtual Family Office network. K&K coordinates the charitable strategy across tax, estate, and wealth plans. See our disclosures page for the full description of the coordination model and partner relationships.
