investors gave more to charity last year signaling more opportunity for advisors to assist clients in these efforts schwab charitable saw a 20 uptick in dollars granted to charity in 2021 compared with a year earlier according to a report released thursday by the organization a large provider of donoradvised funds and other philanthropic services grants totaled a record 44 billion last year with donors supporting 114000 charities through 945000 grants according to the report the growth underscores the opportunity for advisors to help clients with their charitable giving strategies philanthropy has become such a priority for clients—on the same level as savings and investments—and they’re increasingly looking to advisors for guidance and support says fred kaynor managing director of business development marketing and strategic partnerships at schwab charitable “they really want to incorporate it into their overall financial planning process” he says financial advisors have been upping the game when it comes to offering this type of planning eightyfive percent of independent advisors offer charitable planning as part of their practice according to the 2021 ria benchmarking study from charles schwab the large company affiliated with schwab charitable that compares with 75 in 2016 to assist in these efforts schwab charitable in november released an online toolkit for financial advisors it includes resources such as tips to starting meaningful conversations with clients around charitable giving and educational materials one area where advisors can provide value is in helping clients decide what types of assets to donate “it’s easy to give cash or write a check but that doesn’t mean those assets are going to result in the biggest impact” kaynor says rather donating appreciated noncash assets to charity can be advantageous this strategy offers the ability to avoid the capital gains tax that would be triggered upon selling the assets and donating the proceeds to charity this offers the potential for significant tax savings schwab says in 2021 67 of contributions to schwab charitable were in the form of noncash assets the report said that includes publicly traded securities restricted stock and private business interests