Schwab Charitable - SCHWAB CHARITABLE REPORTS INCREASED GRANTING DESPITE CREDIT CRISIS

Schwab CharitableStore this angel in big sizeSAN FRANCISCO, October 21, 2008—Schwab Charitable, one of the country’s better and fastest growing civic donor-advised funds with 12,000 donors and about $2 billion in assets, appear today that grants to charities during the third division of 2008 were up 12 percent from 2007 levels.

The added giving, which comes as agitation on Wall Street has cut contributions to nonprofits nationwide, demonstrates one of the a lot of acute appearance of donor-advised funds—namely their accommodation to basin accommodating assets and actualize “charitable reserves” that can be broke during bread-and-butter downturns.

“During acceptable times, our donors accept set abreast cogent accommodating dollars, and now are able to tap those funds if they are bare most,” said Schwab Charitable President Kim Wright-Violich. “It demonstrates how donor audacious funds can advice humans go above ‘checkbook charity’ and become added cardinal aborigine philanthropists.”

Donor-advised funds are one of the fastest growing accommodating giving cars in the United States, administration accommodating donations for individuals, families and organizations. The accretion acceptance of donor-advised funds is acceptable due to their lower amount and affluence of use against added accommodating vehicles, in accession to absorbing tax allowances and aloofness safeguards for the donor.

Equally important, donor-advised funds can advice sustain accommodating giving during bread-and-butter downturns. The blueprint below demonstrates that admission administration ante by civic donor-advised funds, including Schwab Charitable, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, and Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, run counter-cyclically to banal bazaar movements and abide able during bread-and-butter downturns—providing a continuing abject of abutment for a advanced ambit of charities if added allotment sources may lag.

“In boxy times, it is acute to accept accommodating assets that can advice beanbag allotment losses at charities,” said Ms. Wright-Violich. “Donor audacious funds currently represent alone a allocation of all-embracing giving, but as they grow, they will play an accretion role in allowance abolish some of the animation of grants to alms during bread-and-butter downturns.”

A New Way to Make a Charitable Impact When the Markets are Down:
New Microfinance Initiative
Schwab Charitable aswell afresh launched a new microfinance accommodation agreement affairs that allows donors to accept a altruistic appulse after necessarily acceding assets captivated aural their Schwab Charitable Gift Accounts at a time if the amount of those assets may be suppressed. The affairs is the aboriginal of its affectionate to accredit donors to set abreast a allocation of their accommodating dollars to agreement microfinance loans to the world’s neediest entrepreneurs to start, maintain, or aggrandize baby businesses.

The new affairs allows Schwab Charitable donors to aerate their accommodating appulse by putting donated dollars to use as a microfinance agreement while they are still captivated in their Charitable Gift Accounts and invested for approaching granting.

“We are giving our donors an added befalling to accomplish a aberration in the lives of others and bifold their accommodating appulse by putting the funds to use already as a microfinance agreement and again a additional time as a admission to a absolutely altered cause,” said Ms. Wright-Violich.

The Schwab Charitable microfinance agreement affairs is accepted to access the availability and abate the costs of microfinance loans in over 25 developing countries and will be launched in phases in acknowledgment to interest, which is accepted to be absolutely high. The aboriginal appearance will activate with an estimated $20-30 actor in guarantees and could advice accomplish accessible able-bodied over 100,000 microloans. The affairs is accepting launched in accord with Grameen Foundation, a arch microfinance network, and will advance to cover Developing World Markets, a arch lender to microfinance institutions, as it grows.

About Schwab Charitable
Created as a civic donor-advised armamentarium with a mission to access accommodating giving nationwide, Schwab Charitable has aloft over $3 billion and has facilitated added than $1 billion grants to alms back inception. In 2007, the Fund accustomed added than $1 billion in donations, which is accepted to abode Schwab Charitable a allotment of the top ten fundraising charities in the United States and the better in the State of California. For added advice about Schwab Charitable or the Schwab Charitable microfinance program, appointment www.schwabcharitable.org.


For added information, amuse contact:
Morrison Shafroth
mshafroth@csg-pr.com
Communications Strategy Group
720-470-3653
101 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94104