Instead of the usual Tuesday BONUS call, we’re doing something different for this week only.  

Today is “Giving Tuesday”, a global day of charitable giving, which was created to balance the vast consumerism that flourishes during Black Friday weekend through the end of December.

To help explain the importance of philanthropy and how to maximize your annual giving, we’re fortunate have Michael Thatcher, the CEO of Charity Navigator as our guest.

Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator has become the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. Their team of professional analysts has examined tens of thousands of nonprofit financial documents. Using the information they’ve gathered, they have developed an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess over 8,000 of America's best-known and some lesser known, but worthy, charities.

The timing is perfect, because our sponsor, Betterment, is now offering a service that will allow customers to donate shares from taxable accounts to charitable organizations.

All Betterment customers with appreciated shares will be able to donate long-term investments from their taxable accounts. This feature is one that Betterment is particularly excited to offer customers as it’s part of their deep commitment to giving every investor the high-quality advice that has traditionally only been offered to high-net-worth investors.

When deciding when or where to donate your money, Michael says that in order to be impactful, you need to know where your money goes. He also notes that giving shouldn't be hard, so work with organizations who make the process easier. And remember, all donors who open their hearts, minds, and wallets to good causes, are philanthropists.

So go forth and do your annual good deed...but before you do so, use a strategy that can help you maximize your gifts.

“Better Off” is sponsored by Betterment.

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"Better Off" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com.

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