Donating appreciated stock that you’ve held for over a year could allow you to save up to 20%* in capital gains taxes and potentially up to 37%** in federal income taxes on the charitable donation value of your gift based on your tax bracket when itemizing deductions. To understand the full tax benefits of giving appreciated stock, including potential state tax savings, please consult with your tax professional for information about your personal tax implications. Read more here.

Access the Overflow platform via a 501c3 organization giving page. Click “Stock”, “Crypto”, or “ACH/Debit/Credit” depending on the asset type you would like to donate. You will then be taken to the Overflow platform where you can follow the steps to complete the donation. Learn more about donating through Overflow here.

Immediately after submitting your donation, you will receive an email confirmation of your gift. Stock transactions take 2-14 days to reach our account depending on the sending and receiving brokerages that are involved in the process. Once the 501c3 organization receives your gift, they will send you an IRS-compliant acknowledgment letter that you can use to itemize the charitable deduction on your taxes. Learn more about what to expect after submitting a donation.

Overflow’s Information Security Program is SOC 2 compliant, a widely respected information security auditing procedure. Overflow does not have access to nor stores any brokerage account usernames or passwords. They use Yodlee, a third-party provider, that handles the brokerage login process. Over 600 companies including PayPal, Mint, and Amazon use Yodlee to connect their clients’ accounts. For more information about Overflow’s security practices, please see this article.

You can give any shares that are publicly traded on the U.S. stock market through Overflow. By donating assets that have appreciated in value for more than one year, you are more likely to maximize the potential tax benefits. Learn more about the types of stock you can donate in this article.

Each asset class, stock, crypto, and cash, has its own unique requirements and restrictions when it comes to international gifts. Read this article for more details about giving internationally from each asset class.

Overflow can process all whole shares of publicly traded stock, including 401Ks and IRAs. However, because donors often incur penalties for withdrawing these assets before a certain date, we highly recommend consulting your tax professional before donating these types of assets. Donating 401Ks or IRAs could result in major tax penalties or even fewer tax benefits than donating cash.

If you received company-distributed stock as an employee and the trading window is not open, your brokerage will likely reject the transfer request. We highly advise you to ask your company for the trading windows and give them during those time periods, which typically are open quarterly for 3 to 4 weeks at a time.