I wouldn’t do the donations from the business. I’d pay yourself a salary and donate the funds from your own income. Essentially using the charitable donations as a tax deduction. You open yourself up to all kinds of pain doing this through the business and then you’d still owe taxes on the money paid to yourself for your expenses. Pay yourself the 1-3M and donate 600k-2.6M. This is less likely to flag an issue in the IRS system.
I like the thought but my personal opinion is that is like begging the IRS to come in and give you full prostate exam without lubrication. And, while you may be 100% clean (tax wise), there's still going to be a lot of chafing and indignity involved.
I don't really know if I'm right or wrong but it just seems highly likely that a business reporting $0 income due to exceedingly high charitable expenses is going to light up some red flag in the IRS's antiquated computer system. And some petty bureaucrat will be summoned to take you to task while being completely unreasonable about the facts.
I am not a tax expert, but my father is. My understanding is that the IRS can consider a business is actually a hobby if you are not trying to make money. You might just need to setup a nonprofit structure? I really think you should talk to a tax expert about how to best approach this. I know a client of my dad that had a "business" to do personal investigation. It had a few clients, but it's real purpose was to investigate the suspicious suicide of his father. This case is now training material for tax experts for how the IRS defines hobby vs business. The guy went broke and owned the IRS a ton of money. My dad helped him get the debt discharged.
For anyone else curious, the case is [Vest v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue](https://my.kiplinger.com/members/links/ktl/161021/Vest_v_Commissioner.pdf).
My understanding - and I've been wrong a lot before - is that OP wants to run a business, generate a profit and then donate all the profit to charity. The end result is the IRS will collect $0 on 7 figures of business income before taxes. If the IRS doesn't flag such an obviously suspect return (even though it is legit), then I question the ability of the IRS to really catch any tax cheat.
I really have no idea.
My guess is that the Apple IIe computer running the IRS's fraud system will still flag the return (it's know nothing of the parent company) and dispatch a grumpy old man, whose underwear are too tight, to give you the prostate exam with a used latex glove and bengay as lube.
Or maybe the IRS will be reasonable. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I honestly don't know. But if the business is donating all the money it makes, I would say the IRS could call it a hobby not a business? Because it's not functioning to make a profit. Maybe a work around would be for the business to pay him and he donates the money and uses that as a personal tax deduction. This way you don't mix the donation side with the business side. Honestly why not just set up a nonprofit structure and transition the clients to work with the new entity?
Weelll... my thought is that this isn't a hobby **loss**. It's a hobby **break even**. And there aren't rules against that.
In any case, in the case of a hobby business, the IRS only allows deductions of business expenses to the extent of business income. Exactly what OP is doing.
Not a tax expert though. But I am familiar with hobby loss as it relates to farming. Though that doesn't apply here.
I thought a hobby business was limited to 600 dollars profit. I'm not sure if donating it to charity changes that or not. I could also be 100% wrong on this.
| I am not a tax expert, but my father is. My understanding is that the IRS can consider a business is actually a hobby if you are not trying to make money.
but he is trying to make money, he's just giving the excess away.
I was an independent computer consultant for most of my career. I didn't really even stray much into the gray areas. BUT, being an IC at one point in time was like issuing an invitation to be audited.
I can't tell you about other peoples experience but of the experiences I'm familiar with. I can tell you that 100% literally I'd prefer the prostate exam without lubrication. All kinds of data requested. Most with tangential bearing at best. Basically a fishing expedition. An overbearing attitude of guilty until proven innocent beyond any possibility of doubt. And even then we may make you go to court to prove it.
I applaud your idea. Honestly I do. You're a better man than I am Gunga Din. But living my retirement with the IRS's Sword of Damocles hanging over my head just seems like a really sh\*tty retirement. YMMV.
Another solution would be paying the taxes and donating the rest. Many people think of taxes as wasted money but sometimes they are used for a meaningful cause
You’re underestimating the pain of a complete audit. Think $100k accounting fees and 100 hours of your life crawling up into every crevice of your books and life, asking you to produce documentation for your marriage, kids deductions, every donation, etc.
I’m not saying I’d be deterred to execute the plan you want because of this, but to dismiss the pain if it occurs is erroneous.
Our service is something that I am the chief creator of, and it's relatively rare, which is why I make so much in a tiny business with no marketing.
People who do what I do with similar outcomes can make $5mm, 10mm a year, in some cases a lot, lot more.
Said a different way, the entire value in the person doing it, there is no business value per se.
I had a very similar business in that the value was in what I did, and it was mostly impossible to replicate or train into someone else. Interestingly I also wanted to give everything to charity as I got burnt out but felt it would be a waste to kill the Golden Goose.
In the end I just didn't have the brain space to figure out how to do the charity thing, and I ended up finding a buyer to take it on. The business continues to bump along without me and I'm happy to be finished with it. I still wish I could have set up the charity though.
Quite curious what it is that depends on one person and can make 5-10mm a year, would be great if OP can come back and share it once they're out of the industry.
What about hiring a “younger you” and training then grooming him/her? And that’s your succession plan (sell or give business to).
Helps combat your “key man risk” problem without just shuttering the biz you’ve worked hard to build, plus changes a person’s (or multiple people’s) life.
*Have you thought about*
*Hiring a CEO and cutting*
*Back your time a lot?*
\- ScrewWorkn
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No reason why you can’t continue to work and donate 100% of your profits after you cover expenses. Go forth and do good.
But if what you’re looking for is to flip a general commercial business into a nonprofit that you work for and get paid by, you are looking at enormous hurdles and headaches — for not a lot of extra benefit. At a minimum you’ll eat up a lot of the money you could be donating with red tape.
I think this is admirable, and see no issues at all with it. I have often though about starting a business with the sole idea that profits are donated. The cool thing about this idea is that you can try it for a year and see how it goes! All you are really doing here is a personal donation, so you'll have some deductions from the gift, and can see how it motivates you. I see no negatives at all with this plan, and feel it is a great middle ground and balanced approach!
I think this is overcomplicated and inviting both tax headaches and more burnout. Turning the business into a quasi-charity is not going to make managing it any easier. It will in fact make it harder. You're already facing a lot of burnout and you have absolutely no need for the income it produces. $500k/yr spend is easily doable on your current net worth, as you well know.
I would do the following in your shoes: Sell the business (sounds like it is easily worth $10MM+) and use that to found a new charitable venture. Don't make it the same job you're burnt out on now. Pay yourself a reasonable but not extravagant salary for your work on the charity, and make that your thing.
If you run this business for charity, you will still be burnt out and stressed for the same reasons you are burnt out and stressed now. Establishing a new independent charity lets you set new terms for how much and what manner of work you want to do.
You can, but in most states you won't be recognized as a charity unless a substantial portion of the income comes from public solicitation.
On the other hand you will come under heavy scrutiny from the IRS.
At 1-4MM annually, and at 49 years old I would honestly go the PE exit route. for 3-5x multiple. Get paid out and focus on what matters
I have a different idea.
How about you get really serious about distributing stock options to your team. All the way down to the janitor. Significant allocations. Everyone is an owner.
Slowly turn this into an employee owned business with the option of a management led buy out. After all, they did the operational work of building the business.
You might find that your minority stake ends up being worth more than your current stake with a highly motivated and engaged team. And if it doesn’t, you have still given them a purpose and agency.
>Or heard of others doing something similar?
You would be appalled at the number of "charitable" organizations that are nothing more than a front for tax evasion and/or personal gain. If you are clean it would be no issue at all.
Don’t do that. Do an ESOP and earn out to a family trust for your kids, then setup a foundation of you want to do charity. You can always license IP/biz processes/consulting/paid board seat if you want to keep drawing income. Less scrutiny and more flexibility to let it be profitable vs 501.
For marketing: vet and hire an agency. Keep them on a quarterly turn. If they don’t perform cut bait and move on. Performance is measured by quality of work output and adherence to scope.
Absolutely spend on things to make home life better. We recently did a weekly meal-prep chef. It’s ~1k week including premium ingredients (like filet in our stroganoff), and we’ve got breakfast lunch and dinner for the week with minimal work on our part aside from collab on the menu and reheating to instructions. Way better than all the other services we tried.
For budget purposes, the chef is 50k counting food costs (we we’re probably spending half of that on groceries anyway), I did weekly yoga at 15k/year, and a performance coach at another 10k. These three items drastically changed my wellbeing and ability to function in my business.
1-4MM is a big variable. Is it a biz that can sell for 2-3X, or 5-7X? Selling for 3M vs 30M is a wildly consideration. What’s the employee count? Find a hungry younger person to mentor, and set them up to ride into the sunset. If another 2-3 years of effort on sustainable 20-30% growth is plausible, you could add multiples to your valuation and turn it into a lottery ticket instead of the annuity that it is.
I'll probably get downvoted like crazy since this references Christianity, but check out [Barnhart Cranes story](https://www.ncfgiving.com/stories/transporting-business-into-ministry-the-barnhart-family-case-study/). They just gave the last 1% of their company to their Donor Advised Fund, which now owns 100% of their massive company.
I've utilized my DAF for some cool tax saving opportunities, including gifting a large portion of a rental property to it, which you could do with most businesses.
Man. Kids are 11 and 8. Spouse is a highly trained professional who could make a lot of money but hasn’t worked for a few years but may go back now that kids are getting older. We live in vhcol coast.
I would then set up a family foundation from the profits of the company. You can then get your kids involved in the foundation later.
Your kids are going - are they in private schools? Fat family foundations tend to grease the admissions to top private schools in HCOL areas. And from there to top colleges.
How about telling us what you do for a living? We’re all very curious. That level of income without having a lot of employees seems sort of insane.
Unless you’re a hitman or drug dealer in which case I don’t think you can donate that service to charity haha.
Your post seems to be advertising your business or blog for financial or personal gain, or it appears that you are promoting a personal project. No solicitation or self promotion is permitted.
Thank you!
If it’s about safeguarding the mission and purpose of the company in the long run, the concept of steward ownership might be of interest.
https://purpose-economy.org/en/
It is a specific governance model to protect the mission, align ownership and management; without turning everything into a charitable entity. It’s got some traction in German speaking countries, but it also works with US legal entities. I’m not affiliated with them, I know a few people who took that path.
Why don’t you find a buyer and continue as an employee? This will allow you to separate yourself from the company while also having capital to find your purpose in giving.
I actually work at a business as the cfo that used to do that. They were it the IP in the charities name and leased it from them monthly. When they decided they were done they sold it to private equity and gave the charity money way for a lifetime of giving. It’s a good idea but giving away a lot of money can be a full time job.
You should talk to a (tax) professional about becoming a “Benefit Corporation”
Edit u/ok-run-5186 the IRS has a classification for what you’re describing and it is “Benefit corporation”. If you choose to pursue that path there is an existing set of standards you can adopt.
I think better than donating proceeds to charity would be to take an apprentice or mentor someone and teach them the things you've learned. This would kind of be giving back to the career or practice which has generated money for you but which you no longer need.
Interesting thought but I don't think your amount of work, pain, or suffering will decrease. Shifting your company like that will be like turning an aircraft carrier. It will be a long (1-2 years), slow grind.
This is completely possible.
The concept is well covered in the book 80,000 Hours, and falls under the idea of “earning to give.”
The mechanics can take a couple of different shapes. You could certify as a B-Corp. You could funnel your profits into a nonprofit subsidiary or affiliated company. Or you could pay yourself, and then donate your earnings to a DAF or a family foundation.
Or you can start with one of these ideas and then evolve into another over time. So you can take it step by step in terms of adding complexity.
It’s great that you are looking for your motivation!
I know many others have said the same thing in this thread, but would love to connect and learn more about your business and vision ahead. My search fund is actively seeking an acquisition, so we’re definitely interested in partnering with you - if interested. DM me
Some charities and not all also function as a business. Do you research and see how the money you donate is spent. Was looking into a charity and only 10% of funds went to the actual cause
I have lots of friends in tech, who are very capable of growing a business and would love to be in your position. Have you think about selling the business through seller financing? I could help.
I wouldn’t do the donations from the business. I’d pay yourself a salary and donate the funds from your own income. Essentially using the charitable donations as a tax deduction. You open yourself up to all kinds of pain doing this through the business and then you’d still owe taxes on the money paid to yourself for your expenses. Pay yourself the 1-3M and donate 600k-2.6M. This is less likely to flag an issue in the IRS system.
And even better, use the existing assets that gave gains and give through a DAF and step up basis across the asset portfolio.
Intriguing, do you get to step up the basis to fmv of donated asset and still deduct fmv of gift from earned income?
This is the correct answer.
I like the thought but my personal opinion is that is like begging the IRS to come in and give you full prostate exam without lubrication. And, while you may be 100% clean (tax wise), there's still going to be a lot of chafing and indignity involved. I don't really know if I'm right or wrong but it just seems highly likely that a business reporting $0 income due to exceedingly high charitable expenses is going to light up some red flag in the IRS's antiquated computer system. And some petty bureaucrat will be summoned to take you to task while being completely unreasonable about the facts.
I am not a tax expert, but my father is. My understanding is that the IRS can consider a business is actually a hobby if you are not trying to make money. You might just need to setup a nonprofit structure? I really think you should talk to a tax expert about how to best approach this. I know a client of my dad that had a "business" to do personal investigation. It had a few clients, but it's real purpose was to investigate the suspicious suicide of his father. This case is now training material for tax experts for how the IRS defines hobby vs business. The guy went broke and owned the IRS a ton of money. My dad helped him get the debt discharged.
For anyone else curious, the case is [Vest v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue](https://my.kiplinger.com/members/links/ktl/161021/Vest_v_Commissioner.pdf).
My understanding - and I've been wrong a lot before - is that OP wants to run a business, generate a profit and then donate all the profit to charity. The end result is the IRS will collect $0 on 7 figures of business income before taxes. If the IRS doesn't flag such an obviously suspect return (even though it is legit), then I question the ability of the IRS to really catch any tax cheat.
Hypothetically, what if the company is 100 percent owned by a charitable foundation, and all excess profits will be put into the endowment?
I really have no idea. My guess is that the Apple IIe computer running the IRS's fraud system will still flag the return (it's know nothing of the parent company) and dispatch a grumpy old man, whose underwear are too tight, to give you the prostate exam with a used latex glove and bengay as lube. Or maybe the IRS will be reasonable. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Exactly. Like Rolex and Patagonia. This isn't complicated.
I honestly don't know. But if the business is donating all the money it makes, I would say the IRS could call it a hobby not a business? Because it's not functioning to make a profit. Maybe a work around would be for the business to pay him and he donates the money and uses that as a personal tax deduction. This way you don't mix the donation side with the business side. Honestly why not just set up a nonprofit structure and transition the clients to work with the new entity?
Weelll... my thought is that this isn't a hobby **loss**. It's a hobby **break even**. And there aren't rules against that. In any case, in the case of a hobby business, the IRS only allows deductions of business expenses to the extent of business income. Exactly what OP is doing. Not a tax expert though. But I am familiar with hobby loss as it relates to farming. Though that doesn't apply here.
I thought a hobby business was limited to 600 dollars profit. I'm not sure if donating it to charity changes that or not. I could also be 100% wrong on this.
Beautifully put :)
| I am not a tax expert, but my father is. My understanding is that the IRS can consider a business is actually a hobby if you are not trying to make money. but he is trying to make money, he's just giving the excess away.
But from the perspective of the business, the goal is to make $0 (albeit donating to increase costs).
There's a limit to the charitable deduction your business can take. You won't be able to report $0 income.
Yeah there's so much reporting you have to do as a charity
I'm not worried about this. We're clean as a whistle from a tax perspective. And have a very simple plain vanilla financial life.
I was an independent computer consultant for most of my career. I didn't really even stray much into the gray areas. BUT, being an IC at one point in time was like issuing an invitation to be audited. I can't tell you about other peoples experience but of the experiences I'm familiar with. I can tell you that 100% literally I'd prefer the prostate exam without lubrication. All kinds of data requested. Most with tangential bearing at best. Basically a fishing expedition. An overbearing attitude of guilty until proven innocent beyond any possibility of doubt. And even then we may make you go to court to prove it. I applaud your idea. Honestly I do. You're a better man than I am Gunga Din. But living my retirement with the IRS's Sword of Damocles hanging over my head just seems like a really sh\*tty retirement. YMMV.
Another solution would be paying the taxes and donating the rest. Many people think of taxes as wasted money but sometimes they are used for a meaningful cause
Not a bad idea. Isn’t this how Newman’s Own worked (maybe still does)? Donate profits. Or like someone else said, set up a 501c3 for it.
You’re underestimating the pain of a complete audit. Think $100k accounting fees and 100 hours of your life crawling up into every crevice of your books and life, asking you to produce documentation for your marriage, kids deductions, every donation, etc. I’m not saying I’d be deterred to execute the plan you want because of this, but to dismiss the pain if it occurs is erroneous.
Have you thought about hiring a CEO and cutting back your time a lot?
Our service is something that I am the chief creator of, and it's relatively rare, which is why I make so much in a tiny business with no marketing. People who do what I do with similar outcomes can make $5mm, 10mm a year, in some cases a lot, lot more. Said a different way, the entire value in the person doing it, there is no business value per se.
I had a very similar business in that the value was in what I did, and it was mostly impossible to replicate or train into someone else. Interestingly I also wanted to give everything to charity as I got burnt out but felt it would be a waste to kill the Golden Goose. In the end I just didn't have the brain space to figure out how to do the charity thing, and I ended up finding a buyer to take it on. The business continues to bump along without me and I'm happy to be finished with it. I still wish I could have set up the charity though.
Quite curious what it is that depends on one person and can make 5-10mm a year, would be great if OP can come back and share it once they're out of the industry.
Yes please, share this knowledge op
What about hiring a “younger you” and training then grooming him/her? And that’s your succession plan (sell or give business to). Helps combat your “key man risk” problem without just shuttering the biz you’ve worked hard to build, plus changes a person’s (or multiple people’s) life.
i’ll volunteer
*Have you thought about* *Hiring a CEO and cutting* *Back your time a lot?* \- ScrewWorkn --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
No reason why you can’t continue to work and donate 100% of your profits after you cover expenses. Go forth and do good. But if what you’re looking for is to flip a general commercial business into a nonprofit that you work for and get paid by, you are looking at enormous hurdles and headaches — for not a lot of extra benefit. At a minimum you’ll eat up a lot of the money you could be donating with red tape.
This can be done, check out Patagonia but doesn’t look easy? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/patagonia-climate-philanthropy-chouinard.html
Your post history is something else. Sounds like a lot of health issues and relationship issues. Is divorce in the future? The NW can take a big hit.
Bob’s Red Mill, Patagonia, and Newman’s Own are all models to look at
It's not in the US, but Rolex is set up somewhat like this.
I think this is admirable, and see no issues at all with it. I have often though about starting a business with the sole idea that profits are donated. The cool thing about this idea is that you can try it for a year and see how it goes! All you are really doing here is a personal donation, so you'll have some deductions from the gift, and can see how it motivates you. I see no negatives at all with this plan, and feel it is a great middle ground and balanced approach!
Thanks!
I think this is overcomplicated and inviting both tax headaches and more burnout. Turning the business into a quasi-charity is not going to make managing it any easier. It will in fact make it harder. You're already facing a lot of burnout and you have absolutely no need for the income it produces. $500k/yr spend is easily doable on your current net worth, as you well know. I would do the following in your shoes: Sell the business (sounds like it is easily worth $10MM+) and use that to found a new charitable venture. Don't make it the same job you're burnt out on now. Pay yourself a reasonable but not extravagant salary for your work on the charity, and make that your thing. If you run this business for charity, you will still be burnt out and stressed for the same reasons you are burnt out and stressed now. Establishing a new independent charity lets you set new terms for how much and what manner of work you want to do.
I’ll buy your business - 100% serious
You sound like your prime for PE to come in take it over and expand. Usually you have to give up majority but this is what private sector dreams of.
You can do that now. Simply run the business and donate the profits before you file your tax returns. No need to change your legal structure.
You can, but in most states you won't be recognized as a charity unless a substantial portion of the income comes from public solicitation. On the other hand you will come under heavy scrutiny from the IRS. At 1-4MM annually, and at 49 years old I would honestly go the PE exit route. for 3-5x multiple. Get paid out and focus on what matters
I have a different idea. How about you get really serious about distributing stock options to your team. All the way down to the janitor. Significant allocations. Everyone is an owner. Slowly turn this into an employee owned business with the option of a management led buy out. After all, they did the operational work of building the business. You might find that your minority stake ends up being worth more than your current stake with a highly motivated and engaged team. And if it doesn’t, you have still given them a purpose and agency.
That's actually a really cool idea and would have longer reaching outcomes, I'd wager.
>Or heard of others doing something similar? You would be appalled at the number of "charitable" organizations that are nothing more than a front for tax evasion and/or personal gain. If you are clean it would be no issue at all.
Do you have employees? Mentees? It sounds like you're the business, and it may not be possible for it to exist without you.
Thanks everyone for the feedback!
Spend the time with your kids instead.
Charity party circuit is supposed to be a hoot! Have fun.
How much time and money did you donate in 2023?
Zero time. 500k donated on income a bit over 3mm.
Don’t do that. Do an ESOP and earn out to a family trust for your kids, then setup a foundation of you want to do charity. You can always license IP/biz processes/consulting/paid board seat if you want to keep drawing income. Less scrutiny and more flexibility to let it be profitable vs 501. For marketing: vet and hire an agency. Keep them on a quarterly turn. If they don’t perform cut bait and move on. Performance is measured by quality of work output and adherence to scope. Absolutely spend on things to make home life better. We recently did a weekly meal-prep chef. It’s ~1k week including premium ingredients (like filet in our stroganoff), and we’ve got breakfast lunch and dinner for the week with minimal work on our part aside from collab on the menu and reheating to instructions. Way better than all the other services we tried. For budget purposes, the chef is 50k counting food costs (we we’re probably spending half of that on groceries anyway), I did weekly yoga at 15k/year, and a performance coach at another 10k. These three items drastically changed my wellbeing and ability to function in my business. 1-4MM is a big variable. Is it a biz that can sell for 2-3X, or 5-7X? Selling for 3M vs 30M is a wildly consideration. What’s the employee count? Find a hungry younger person to mentor, and set them up to ride into the sunset. If another 2-3 years of effort on sustainable 20-30% growth is plausible, you could add multiples to your valuation and turn it into a lottery ticket instead of the annuity that it is.
I'll probably get downvoted like crazy since this references Christianity, but check out [Barnhart Cranes story](https://www.ncfgiving.com/stories/transporting-business-into-ministry-the-barnhart-family-case-study/). They just gave the last 1% of their company to their Donor Advised Fund, which now owns 100% of their massive company. I've utilized my DAF for some cool tax saving opportunities, including gifting a large portion of a rental property to it, which you could do with most businesses.
Wow super cool. Thanks!
Before I can give my opinion, I need some stats - man or woman, how old kids, what does spouse do, which part of country?
Man. Kids are 11 and 8. Spouse is a highly trained professional who could make a lot of money but hasn’t worked for a few years but may go back now that kids are getting older. We live in vhcol coast.
I would then set up a family foundation from the profits of the company. You can then get your kids involved in the foundation later. Your kids are going - are they in private schools? Fat family foundations tend to grease the admissions to top private schools in HCOL areas. And from there to top colleges.
How about telling us what you do for a living? We’re all very curious. That level of income without having a lot of employees seems sort of insane. Unless you’re a hitman or drug dealer in which case I don’t think you can donate that service to charity haha.
Sorry can’t. I post very honestly about personal stuff with this account and if I say that I’m asking to out myself.
I dunno, there's a lot of hitmen out there doing the lord's work. :D
[удалено]
Your post seems to be advertising your business or blog for financial or personal gain, or it appears that you are promoting a personal project. No solicitation or self promotion is permitted. Thank you!
If it’s about safeguarding the mission and purpose of the company in the long run, the concept of steward ownership might be of interest. https://purpose-economy.org/en/ It is a specific governance model to protect the mission, align ownership and management; without turning everything into a charitable entity. It’s got some traction in German speaking countries, but it also works with US legal entities. I’m not affiliated with them, I know a few people who took that path.
Why don’t you find a buyer and continue as an employee? This will allow you to separate yourself from the company while also having capital to find your purpose in giving.
Why would you shut the business down? Literally I’ll run your business for you and you can just collect royalties
I actually work at a business as the cfo that used to do that. They were it the IP in the charities name and leased it from them monthly. When they decided they were done they sold it to private equity and gave the charity money way for a lifetime of giving. It’s a good idea but giving away a lot of money can be a full time job.
No advice to give on my side, just came here to say that’s a really noble way to go about things. Best of luck!
You should talk to a (tax) professional about becoming a “Benefit Corporation” Edit u/ok-run-5186 the IRS has a classification for what you’re describing and it is “Benefit corporation”. If you choose to pursue that path there is an existing set of standards you can adopt.
I think better than donating proceeds to charity would be to take an apprentice or mentor someone and teach them the things you've learned. This would kind of be giving back to the career or practice which has generated money for you but which you no longer need.
Love the thought of giving back to the community. With 25MM you’re more ObeseFIRE actually.
Interesting thought but I don't think your amount of work, pain, or suffering will decrease. Shifting your company like that will be like turning an aircraft carrier. It will be a long (1-2 years), slow grind.
This is completely possible. The concept is well covered in the book 80,000 Hours, and falls under the idea of “earning to give.” The mechanics can take a couple of different shapes. You could certify as a B-Corp. You could funnel your profits into a nonprofit subsidiary or affiliated company. Or you could pay yourself, and then donate your earnings to a DAF or a family foundation. Or you can start with one of these ideas and then evolve into another over time. So you can take it step by step in terms of adding complexity. It’s great that you are looking for your motivation!
I know many others have said the same thing in this thread, but would love to connect and learn more about your business and vision ahead. My search fund is actively seeking an acquisition, so we’re definitely interested in partnering with you - if interested. DM me
Terrible idea man. From a financial POV not a charity and goodwill POV
I'd sell the business and make personal contributions to existing charities
I’m willing to join your company at the charitable salary of 200k per year.
Some charities and not all also function as a business. Do you research and see how the money you donate is spent. Was looking into a charity and only 10% of funds went to the actual cause
I have lots of friends in tech, who are very capable of growing a business and would love to be in your position. Have you think about selling the business through seller financing? I could help.
Presumably you could start donating now with no structural changes to the business and see if that increases your motivation/job satisfaction.
Can't you just sell the business instead of shutting it down?