Celebrating 20 years of giving with 20 heartfelt stories

I've been able to fund many charities at different levels over the years through our Schwab Charitable account. I appreciate how easy you make it to be a donor in the world.

When I graduated from college I made a personal commitment to always support public radio. In the beginning it was only $25 a year. As my career developed, the donation amount increased yearly. Waking up to the news of the world, the U.S., and my city helps me stay engaged and involved in my community.

It deeply concerns me that hunger in Colorado is on the rise. So four years ago my husband and I started a food pantry in a high school—each year we grow our distribution by over 35%.

Another cause I'm passionate about is supporting organizations that help improve the lives of women and children in developing countries and in the refugee community. I also like to support local non-profits here in Denver.

Schwab Charitable gives me the flexibility to recommend grants big and small with ease. And if a charity isn't on the approved list, it's simple to ask Schwab Charitable to confirm their eligibility and add them.

We use our donor-advised fund accounts to push the envelope in autism research. We focus on the area where genes meet environment, and exposures can have heritable impacts.

Our Schwab Charitable account has helped us fund several studies published in major scientific journals, with more on the way. The work we support is on the cutting-edge of biology, and would not easily be funded through conventional means.

I believe donor-advised funds provide an incredibly powerful tool for philanthropic giving. They allow our appreciated assets to go to work for charitable purposes. I can focus on our philanthropic goals instead of paperwork and administration—making a grant only takes a few minutes! And the account potentially grows tax-free. It's a win-win-win-win, with the 4th win being the worthy recipients of much-needed charitable dollars. All Americans can be mini-philanthropists through the power of donor-advised funds—it's not just for the rich crowd.

As a mom of two children with nonverbal autism, I hope that our support for out-of-the-box research will help move the field in productive and innovative new directions.

There are many worthy causes in life, but we can't support them all. Our Schwab Charitable account inspired us to create a charitable giving mission statement. Now we only focus on a small group of targeted charities that we're personally involved in—like the University of Washington Bothell.

We both find it very rewarding to mentor students and work with the staff at UW Bothell. Being associated with a school that does so much for the students has really touched our hearts.

We used our Schwab Charitable account to establish an endowed scholarship for UW Bothell's School of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) students. We had students on the brink of dropping out for need of small amounts of money, so we made a grant from our Schwab Charitable account to help the university provide modest awards for students facing similar challenges. Eventually we hope to have enough in the scholarship fund to cover the full cost of attendance.

Making a change in our overall giving strategy made it possible for us to start this scholarship. And the impact on the two of us has been amazing—giving back has made our lives so much richer.

Watch more about our story here.

Memories of my family's charity and my own education drive our giving. When I was growing up in India, my family's business funded education through a charitable trust. I have a visceral memory of kids coming to fill out grant applications. Later I studied at Colby College in the U.S., where I was very influenced by a liberal arts education. It opened not only my mind but my emotions. So my wife and I have earmarked a $1 million legacy gift to Colby to support one needy Indian student every year.

Now that we're in our 60s and don't have children, there's even more of a need now to decide how to allocate our resources and leave legacies to organizations close to our hearts. We want to give 10 to 20 percent of our annual income while we're alive and significant assets to charity after we're gone.

Our Schwab Charitable account offers a tax-efficient way to front-load our giving. It's also allowing us to "toe-dip" to decide which charitable organizations we want to leave large gifts to. And I like the ease of being able to transfer assets to Schwab Charitable. When I open my Schwab account, it's nice to have everything consolidated in one place.

My wife and I appreciate Schwab Charitable even more in retirement. It means we can recommend grants today without current financial sacrifice. It's just an allocation decision. Our donor-advised fund account helps us support good causes and build relationships with the organizations and people advancing those causes.

We have continued to add to the fund partly because stock prices have been so high that we've accelerated some options exercises, making our income higher than it would be otherwise.

We're very happy with Schwab Charitable. It's helped us make a bigger impact with our giving for three main reasons:

• We can control the timing of our contributions. And if we're not sure which charity to give to, we can decide later.
• We avoid paying capital gains taxes by donating appreciated securities.
• It's so easy to use the online platform—it consolidates our giving history in one place.

My parents instilled in me the necessity of giving back. My mother would cart us along on shopping trips for older women she cared for. And on Halloween, we collected pennies for UNICEF along with candy for ourselves.

I opened my Schwab Charitable account as soon as I discovered it nearly 20 years ago. It's just so much simpler to do my giving through Schwab Charitable. I can do practically all of my charitable giving through this fund and I don't have to keep track of anything.

My account also makes it easy to contribute larger amounts to charitable organizations than I might if I were writing an actual check. I transfer long-term appreciated stock from my Schwab brokerage account directly into my gift fund. The cost basis on some of this stock is so low or unknown that I could not tax-efficiently sell it. Now if a disaster strikes, like the earthquake in Haiti a few years back, I can immediately send a large donation.

I can do better long-term planning by having a single place where all my charitable funds are located. The funds can potentially grow tax-free, so I can give more to charity. And by having a single pool of funds that can be used over a number of years, it's easier to sustain my annual giving for years to come—either at the same level or more than in the past. This means the charities get more consistent support and can better plan for their programs.

My wife and I support close to 20 charities per year—in particular, education, arts, social services, and environmental causes. I like that I can transfer appreciated stock from my Schwab brokerage account into our Schwab Charitable account and easily keep track of my charitable donations online. And it's all with the click of a button.

Over the past few years, I've been building our Schwab Charitable account at a significant rate to maximize the tax deduction while I'm still working in preparation for my retirement next month. This has been a benefit to me while stockpiling funds to maintain a fairly constant level of giving during our retirement years.

Charitable planning is an important part of our practice. It allows us to support our clients' individual goals while aligning with their values. Many of our clients want to make a difference in the world, so it's a very natural part of our conversation with them.

We encourage clients to have a strategic plan around giving, and to think more about the organizations that mean the most to them. For example, they might make a larger contribution to Schwab Charitable to pre-fund their giving, invest the funds for potential growth, then spread out their grants over time.

We also help our clients determine the best assets to give, and which giving vehicles are most appropriate to reach their charitable goals. We have some clients with private foundations, and some who pair their private foundation with a donor-advised fund. Oftentimes, clients end up with a donor-advised fund for simplicity sake.

Schwab Charitable makes it easy for our clients to give. In fact, our clients tend to give more because it's so simple to make an instant gift when they hear about a good cause. It also gives them a way to involve their children so their charitable mission can extend beyond their lifetime.

I personally have a Schwab Charitable account and enjoy using it for all the reasons my clients do.

I volunteer and serve on the board of directors for a local food shelf that serves 8% of the population in my city and 25% of the schoolkids. Last year, we were $30K short at year-end. So I challenged other board members to a 10-minute fundraiser to match my $5K Schwab Charitable grant. Many other board members matched my gift, so we quickly raised $30K for the food shelf and solved our budget problem. Since then, we've made the challenge an annual tradition. It's helped us increase awareness and expand the food program.

My Schwab Charitable account has allowed me to give about 50% more than I otherwise would because I get a larger tax deduction by bunching my contributions and due to the investment gains I've received thus far in my account. Plus, since I've already donated the money to the account it almost feels like giving away free money to those in need. It's an easy decision for me to make a bigger grant from my Schwab Charitable account.

I also really like the capability to set up recurring grants from my Schwab Charitable account. It's a simple way for me to put my annual giving on autopilot.

I've been in the tech industry for more than 25 years. I've been fortunate to have pretty successful exits from the last two companies. I'm set from a financial standpoint. So I decided to contribute more to my Schwab Charitable account. From a tax-planning perspective, last year was a good year for me to do that. The ability to donate shares with high capital gains at the current price without paying taxes was pretty compelling. Then I could decide which organizations to support over time—that was really helpful to me.

I also chose to make a shift in my career. Rather than spending my time building another company and acquiring more wealth, I wanted to change the balance and spend more of my time volunteering. I ran across an all-volunteer organization that leverages technology to address the homelessness problem in San Francisco. I made a grant to them from my Schwab Charitable account earlier this year. Then I heard about an open position there and I became their executive director. What started out as a contribution turned into something totally different.

My wife, Jennifer, and I feel passionately about giving back. We know firsthand the power that giving can have on one's life and feel deeply motivated to provide similar opportunities to those who may need a little help.

Jennifer enjoys supporting the Junior League in our city—she's been a long-time volunteer and she recently finished a term as president. When the organization celebrated its 80th anniversary last year, we became the lead donors in a project to install a commemorative sculpture along our city's Riverwalk. We were able to fund the gift by contributing highly appreciated stock that we held for almost a decade in our Schwab account to our Schwab Charitable account.

Schwab Charitable has reshaped the way we approach philanthropy. Donating appreciated assets allows us to plan our giving and give more to the charities we care about.

In my role at Schwab, I consult with independent Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) daily on a broad range of business issues, including how to integrate charitable planning into their wealth management approach. Giving is becoming a bigger part of the conversation, and I enjoy working with advisors on strategies to deliver the best possible charitable experience.

I joined Schwab Charitable shortly after it launched and am entering my 20th year here in 2019. I've seen the organization grow from 1,500 accounts to approximately 56,000 accounts. And those account holders have recommended grants of over $12B to charity as of June 2019.

My enthusiasm for charitable giving and volunteerism began at a young age in Lima, Peru, where I grew up volunteering with my family and the Girl Scouts. After attending college in the U.S., I became passionate about women's education and I've been volunteering for my alma mater ever since.

I served on the Board of Daraja Education Fund and helped raise funds to give young women in Kenya the ability to attend a high school called Daraja (which means bridge). Another passion of mine is combining international travel with volunteer work. I've volunteered for at-risk children in Argentina and I've built homes through Habitat for Humanity in Thailand, Fiji, and New Zealand.

I enjoy using my Schwab Charitable account to support my alma mater and many other philanthropic endeavors. I look forward to continuing to grow my account to support my giving in the future. Working at Schwab Charitable has been an amazing opportunity to combine my professional career and my love for giving back.

After my husband and I got married 31 years ago, we decided to donate 10% of our after-tax income to charity. Three years ago, Gerry's company was purchased, providing a payout larger than we wanted to donate in one year. We decided to open a donor-advised fund account with Schwab Charitable so we could keep our 10% goal and still give generously even when we no longer have paychecks coming in.

Our philanthropic focus has always been on children. Nineteen years ago, after adopting our youngest child, we learned about adoption assistance as a philanthropic cause. Not many people realize that you don't have to personally adopt to give a child a family! Since adoption can be so cost-prohibitive, we support a charity that awards grants to complete adoptions of vulnerable children. Adoption assistance grants lower the significant financial hurdles of adoption, allowing more children to be united with permanent and loving families. The beauty of supporting adoption is that having a loving family is a root-cause solution to so many of society's problems—mental illness, lack of education, homelessness, incarceration and more.

We're so happy that our Schwab Charitable account will allow us to continue to unite children with loving families long into our retirement!