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Create your charitable legacy

Whether you want to maintain your family’s tradition of giving or ensure ongoing support for the charities you care about, your Fidelity Charitable Giving Account can carry on your legacy. Your donor-advised fund allows you to involve your family and children during your lifetime and ensure the giving tradition continues.

Establish a succession plan

You’ve worked hard to establish your charitable legacy. Make sure to pass it on by nominating an individual, a charity or a combination of both as a successor for your Giving Account. Nominating a successor(s), is the simplest way to continue the legacy of your Giving Account after your passing.

 

What is a succession plan?

Fidelity Charitable offers three distinct successor options to allow Account Holders to continue their charitable legacies beyond their lifetime:

  • Individual Successor(s)
  • Charities
  • Endowed Giving Program

Account Holders can elect one successor option or a combination of the three.

Who can be my successor(s)?

Your successor(s) can be:

  • Any individual(s), including your spouse, child, other descendants, or representatives (who are not joint account holders).
  • An IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charity.

Why do I need a succession plan?

Your successor(s) become the new Account Holder, able to make contributions and recommend investments and grants. In turn, they can name their own successor(s). This option continues the tradition of giving for generations to come.

If Fidelity Charitable doesn’t have a successor on file, upon your passing, the balance of your Giving Account will be granted in accordance with the Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Initiative.

Add a successor to your Giving Account

You can establish a succession plan when you open a Giving Account, or you can nominate a successor(s) at any point by logging in to your Giving Account, clicking Your profile, and choosing the Successor tab.

Consider the Endowed Giving Program

More than simply naming a charity as a successor, the Endowed Giving Program lets you set up recurring grant recommendations to up to six charities for a minimum of five years. This lets your Giving Account remain open to donations from your estate (such as personal property or other assets), which can help offset estate taxes while also ensuring support for the causes you care about.

 

The Endowed Giving Program at a glance

Minimum balance

$100,000 or more at activation1

Sources of funding

  • Giving Account balance

  • Donations from an estate

  • Donations from individuals

Beneficiaries

Up to six IRS-qualified charities

Frequency and duration of grants

Once or twice a year for five years or more, possibly into perpetuity1

1Minimum term for the Endowed Giving Program (“Program”) is five years. Funded and invested appropriately, Giving Accounts could continue in perpetuity. Under the terms of the Program, Fidelity Charitable may expend as much of the Giving Account’s income and principal as the Trustees deem appropriate. If the Giving Account balance drops below $5,000, Fidelity Charitable may distribute the balance, via lump-sum grants, to eligible charities, in the proportion recommended by the Account Holder.

Name Fidelity Charitable in an estate plan

Incorporating Fidelity Charitable into your estate plan is another effective way to perpetuate your legacy of charitable giving.

There are several approaches you can take, and each one offers unique advantages, including helping you reduce or even eliminate the estate-tax burden for your loved ones.

Learn more about estate planning