Before 2020 Ends, You Can Still Make a Charitable Impact with Your IRA

How You Can Donate Pre-tax Dollars to Your Favorite Charity

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Are you looking for a way to help Quechua Benefit? You or someone you know may be eligible to make a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA.

This information is especially beneficial for people who are over 70.5 years old. When you reach 70.5 years of age, you must start taking Required Minimum Distributions from your IRA account. Most people who are age 70.5 are already drawing funds in retirement anyway, so they meet this requirement. But other people who don’t necessarily need the money are forced to take a certain percentage at this time. This is how the IRS makes you pay taxes on all that tax-deferred money you earned over your lifetime.

To put it very simply, this means that you can donate to any qualified 501(c)3 directly from your IRA and bypass paying taxes on that money. Yes, that’s right. You could give to your church or other local nonprofit and actually save money on taxes each year!

Here is an example:

Let’s say you are above age 70.5 and normally give $3,000 to a charity you love and tithe another $3,000 to your church. Instead of you writing them a check from your personal bank account, you have your IRA broker cut you a check from your IRA that’s written directly to each organization.

If you withdrew the same $6,000 from your IRA and made the donation, then you would pay taxes on that money.

If your taxes were 30% federal and 5% state, the total tax saving is $2,100 for your $6,000 donation!

You receive several benefits:

  1. The charitable contribution counts toward your required minimum distribution each year.
  2. Normally a withdrawal from your IRA would count as income, which could cause you to pay taxes on your Social Security and would count towards raising your Medicare premiums. You avoid this tax by simply having your plan administrator cut the check directly from your IRA.
  3. You also don’t need to worry about the adjusted gross income limitations for charitable donations each year.

Qualifying Requirements:

  1. You can’t give to a private (grant-making) foundation
  2. As stated above, you must be 70.5 years old.
  3. The charitable organization must give you proof of the contribution.
  4. These contributions must come from a traditional IRA.
  5. You are limited to $100,000 per year in contributions like this. But,
  6. The tax benefit is per person; so if you have a spouse with a traditional IRA you could potentially gift up to $200,000 between the two of you.

Would you like help with doing this for yourself or a family member?

Quechua Benefit is glad to help!

Contact Mike Safley (503) 703-6020 or Dale Cantwell (303) 902-4503 for more information.

Click here to read more about the benefits of QCD(s) and the rules that govern them. Your financial advisor can help you make your Qualified Charitable Distribution to Quechua Benefit. 100% of your donations directly impact the lives of families, women, and children in Peru.

The Arequipa region of Peru has among the highest COVID-19 death rates per capita in the world. With your help, Quechua Benefit is fighting the spread of the virus by distributing masks, soap and educational information for unreached villages. All for just $4 per person.

This project also supplies badly needed jobs for the indigenous Quechua women who are sewing the masks.

Quechua Benefit’s pilot Mask Campaign to the town of Yanque on September 25, 2020, delivered masks, soap, and educational information to 1,300 people. See more photos in our Yanque COVID-19 Campaign Gallery.

Yanque’s Mask Campaign was successful!

More than 23,000 people in 17 villages, many of them elderly, still need your help. Will you send them life-saving masks, soap and education?

Click here to see our COVID Mask Production Photo Gallery.

Your donation can help save the lives of children, women and men in need. Each of them will receive:

  • A washable cloth mask
  • Hand soap
  • Educational poster or brochure

Click here to donate now.

Juan and Gian Franco wear their new Casa Chapi sweatshirts and pants while they feed their animals at their home in Caylloma.

Your love is reaching your Casa Chapi students at their homes in remote villages. Peru now has among the highest Covid-19 cases per capita in the world. Nationwide quarantines and curfews are still in effect, but your generosity is delivering hope to your kids in the midst of the crisis. 

Our Peru Country Director has received permission to travel to Casa Chapi families, and recently he took new Casa Chapi sweatshirts and pants along with food and school supplies. Your kids feel your love through the food, school supplies, anemia treatment, and now new clothes they’ve received! Just take a look at the smiles you’ve brought to Juan, Gian Franco and Brigite.

Your generosity is making all the difference for your 150 Casa Chapi kids! You’re providing

  • Virtual schooling with iPads, cellphones and internet access

  • Anemia and parasite testing and treatment

  • Monthly food deliveries to Casa Chapi families

With your help, all your kids and their families will stay healthy.

Brigite is grateful for your love and kindness. She’s working hard on her schoolwork and helping her family take care of their animals.

Brigite enjoys math and volleyball and would like to become a teacher. Your support will help her dream come true!

Click here to donate to our Covid-19 relief fund for our Casa Chapi families. Thank you for your kindness.

“It was beautiful to see Janeth waiting for me!” exclaimed Alejandro, our Peru Country Director, when he visited Janeth at her home in Caylloma.

Her home has no access to radio, TV or internet. Although your generous provision of food and anemia treatment made it to Caylloma, it had been months since Janeth was able to talk with her teachers and fellow Casa Chapi students. Her remote location made it impossible for an iPad or cellphone to connect her to Casa Chapi’s virtual learning that is underway.

Alejandro spoke with her parents, but they could not help her connect to Casa Chapi’s virtual school. Janeth loves school but was afraid she could not continue. Alejandro is committed to doing whatever it takes to help our students succeed, and he found a way for Janeth to continue school. Now Janeth is staying with her older sister and is attending the virtual school provided by your generous donations.

When Janeth finished 6th grade in December of 2019, she was at the top of her class in reading. Her scores exceeded the world standard by 25 words per minute!

Today, Janeth is grateful for the opportunity you’re giving her to continue learning. She can pursue her dream of finishing high school and becoming a tour guide.

Thank you for changing Janeth’s future.

Click here to donate to Casa Chapi kids and families in need.

Secondary students Isaac and Maria Fernanda in Caylloma are happy to get food and schoolbooks provided by your generosity.

The Covid-19 crisis has turned the world upside down. Peru has been especially hard hit. Schools will remain closed through the school year (December of 2020), travel and other activities are restricted, and new cases of the virus are still climbing.

After 25 years on the ground in Peru, Quechua Benefit is used to overcoming challenges. We are good at it. We intend to continue our mission to break the cycle of poverty in the highlands by meeting the needs of the Quechua people. They are the least among us, the poorest of the poor.

Because of the generosity of our loyal supporters like you, we are meeting the immediate needs of the families of our 150 Casa Chapi kids. Each of these families, like Saul and Luis’s family pictured here, have 4 to 12 members, to make a total of nearly 700 people.

  • We are delivering 30 days’ worth of food every 30 days to each family and will continue this mission until the country reopens.
  • The Casa Chapi teachers for grades 1-6 will begin delivering virtual lessons in July on iPads supplied by the Ministry of Education.
  • The high school students who attend private schools on scholarships will be receiving their lessons directly from the school they attend while living on the Casa Chapi campuses in Yanahuara.
  • Quechua Benefit is supplying each family that lives in very remote areas with a cell phone to stay in contact with their teachers.
  • We will continue to stay in touch with each family and be available to deliver medicines, warm clothes, books, and other essential supplies that are not currently within these families’ reach.

Click here to provide help for our families.

Many of us are shopping online now more than ever! When you shop on Smile.Amazon.com and choose Quechua Benefit as your charity, the AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the your eligible purchases to us! (The purchase price excludes any rebates, shipping & handling, gift-wrapping fees, taxes, or service charges.)  

Your Amazon account will not change, and your prices are not higher. The good news is that Quechua Benefit will receive a donation from the AmazonSmile Foundation. For help to activate your AmazonSmile giving, just follow these step-by-step instructions for your device.

On your desktop computer.

On your Apple device.

On your Android device.

ONLY PURCHASES MADE THROUGH AMAZONSMILE ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS. If you shop at Amazon.com your purchases do not quality for the contribution.

Thank you for your support!