Points donation

[AppleDisneyDad]

Is their any organization like "make a wish" to which people can donate points?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Is their any organization like "make a wish" to which people can donate points?

What I did was call "Give the Kids the World" when I had the same question. They did not use the points directly, but asked if I would be interested in giving a volunteer a few nights stay. I did that. The organization was the go between...and both they and the family sent me a Thank You" note.

People here will note that there is no IRS deduction involved .... I am sure someone will explain why. That was not my purpose, I had points that I could not use
Bobbi

 

[chalee94]

Is their any organization like "make a wish" to which people can donate points?

No.

You can only donate a stay (and as noted, IRS rules don't allow a tax deduction for such a donation.)

 

[JimMIA]

You can't "donate points" because the recipient would have no DVC account for you to transfer the points INTO.

You can donate reservations which can be used by the charitable groups. I've done so twice -- once for a serviceman's family returning from overseas and once for a group volunteering with "Give Kids The World"...but directly through the group, rather than GKTW.

Donations of stuff like this are not deductible unless you donate your entire asset (entire DVC account, in your example). Still feels good, though.

 

[Broker]

What I did was call "Give the Kids the World" when I had the same question. They did not use the points directly, but asked if I would be interested in giving a volunteer a few nights stay. I did that. The organization was the go between...and both they and the family sent me a Thank You" note.

People here will note that there is no IRS deduction involved .... I am sure someone will explain why. That was not my purpose, I had points that I could not use
Bobbi

It's simply because the organization isn't set up as a 503C charitable organization.

 

[bobbiwoz]

It's simply because the organization isn't set up as a 503C charitable organization.

Because we were in contact with GTKTW, we did get from them a "blank receipt." It would have been for us to "fill in the blank" as to the amount of the donation we gave. We did not use it. Now this was around 2004, perhaps, maybe 2005. Things could be different now. This is similar to what you get when you donate goods to a charitable organization.

 

[spears2008]

The IRS denies a deduction for a contribution of only partial interest in property. ie you CAN take a deduction if you donate your entire DVC contract, but not if you only allow use for specific reservations.

See, Internal Revenue Code §170(f)(3) and Regulations §1.170A-7.

If you'd like to receive a charitable deduction, you can rent your points for cash and then donate the cash and take a charitable deduction for the donation (but you may also have rental income for the point rental).

I think it's wonderful that you are donating to MAW or GKTW. My nephew is hopefully receiving a Wish trip to DisneyWorld in April and it will be a huge blessing for their family of 7 kids for this trip of a lifetime! I believe you can contact GKTW or any local MAW chapter to see how you can help a specific family.

**If you are interested in renting your points, I'm thinking about trying to surprise my sister's family by adding 1 or 2 nights at AKV to my nephew's MAW trip (in April 2014). Not sure if this timing works for your points, but if so, please send me an email. 4 of my sister's kids are under 5 and my nephew is 7 but mentally is on par with a 2-3 year old. I think the little ones would LOVE watching the animals!



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**CYA notice required IRS ***: I am a tax attorney, but am not providing legal or tax advice to any readers of this post. There is no attorney/client relationship between myself and any reader of this post.

Any U.S. tax advice contained in the body of this post was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any reader for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code or applicable state or local tax law provisions.