What’s That? Oak Galls

This time of year, acorns large and small start to rain down all around MAGC, keeping the squirrels busy and the rest of us on our guard. You may have noticed some other, more unusual objects growing on and falling from our oaks: oak galls, sometimes called oak apples. Their rounded shape and surprisingly light […]

The Garden School Gets Cooking from the Edible Garden

Our on-site preschool is called the Garden School for a reason: the children spend time out on the grounds almost every day, exploring and discovering the natural world. This fall, they have been helping with the harvest in the Edible Garden, and helping others as well. In September, the preschool students trekked over to the […]

Introducing the Horticultural Advisory Committee

It’s the nature of gardens to change, with the seasons and with the years. You may not be able to see how much thought and planning goes into shaping these changes at the Marin Art & Garden Center, but we certainly hope you notice the results. Keeping these 11-acre grounds consistently inviting, engaging, and enlightening […]

IRS Guidelines for Gifts from Donor Advised Funds to Support MAGC Events

Thank you for your interest in giving to the Marin Art & Garden Center events from your Donor Advised Fund (DAF) or Family Foundation.

We sincerely appreciate your generosity and support!

To ensure your gift follows the current IRS guidelines for DAF/Family Foundation support of an event, we would like to share the below guidelines with you.

  • Raffle tickets, tickets to galas and other special events, auction items, and benefits conferred in connection with a DAF/foundation grant are not permitted.
    • IRS has specifically ruled that fair market value associated with fundraising events cannot be separated, a practice known as “bifurcation.”
      • For example, with Edible Garden, if the price of the ticket is $200 and the FMV fair market value (non-tax-deductible amount) is designated to be $50, the donor must pay from sources other than her DAF/foundation for the full value of the ticket ($200) and not just for the non-tax-deductible amount ($50).
    • We recommend you confer with your financial advisor to confirm if any of these examples of how donors may still use their DAF to support an event would work for you:
      • A donor could sponsor the event, and not attend, and pay fully out of the DAF/foundation.
      • A donor could sponsor the event using DAF/foundation funds and attend by purchasing an individual ticket through non-DAF/foundation funds.
      • A donor could sponsor the event, join the event as a guest of another donor/table guest, and pay fully out of the DAF/foundation.
      • A donor could sponsor the event and host the afforded number of people at their chosen level as long as they pay for the seats at the lowest ticket price ($200 for Edible Garden) outside of their DAF.
        • As an example, a $1,500 sponsor that covers 2 guests, could pay for their sponsorship with $400 from a different source of funds, and then give an additional gift of $1,100 out of their DAF.

 

Please email Tod Thorpe, Director of Development at tod.thorpe@maringarden.org to discuss your gift to Marin Art and Garden Center