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Tax Efficient Giving to The Methuselah Foundation and the Mprize.

Updated on 12th May 2008 by Alistair Tweed.

We would like to inform you about details of a new, tax efficient way for UK taxpayers to donate to the Methuselah Foundation. Through working with Dave Gobel, CEO of the Methuselah Foundation and by using the services of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), it is now possible to get the UK Government to provide tax relief at 20% on all donations to the Methuselah Foundation by UK taxpayers.

Charities Aid Foundation offer a CAF Charity Account which you can use for all your charitable giving. Once the account is opened it can be used to support organisations based overseas providing HM Revenue and Customs regard them as being charitable.

Here's how it works:

You get in touch with Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) by phone or via their web site to set up the account:
- CAF Customer Services - Telephone : +44 (0) 1732 520055.
- http://www.cafonline.org/
You pay £100 (non-returnable) as the minimum amount to open the account.
CAF send confirmation that your account has been opened along with a 'Charitable Giving Declaration' form that needs to be filled in and returned.
Only once the account has been opened, should you ring CAF and ask them to send you an 'International Gift Request Form'. This needs to be filled out stating the full organisation details and contact details of the charitable organisation you wish to give to. In this case it would be:
The Methuselah Foundation is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization; its IRS tax identification number is 54-2040344.
Mprize and Methuselah Foundation.
PO Box 1143, Lorton, VA, 22079-1143,
Telephone: +1 202 306-0989
CAF charge a fee of 4% for every transfer into the CAF Account.
You must be a UK tax payer and CAF will then reclaim the Gift Aid at the standard UK rate (20% from 6th April 2008).
You can add funds and make donations through the CAFonline website or by telephone. Should you wish to fund your account on a regular basis a direct debit can be set up.

Summary

Assuming that you find a way to offset the £20 fee and that Peter Thiel will match 50% of the donation, it means that if you donate through CAF, for every £100 you donate, CAF give £116, Peter Thiel matches 50% of this donation, which means that the Methuselah Foundation get £174!

Additional Useful Information

CAF charge for each international transfer of funds (£20 at the time of writing). Therefore, this method of donating to the Methuselah Foundation works best when you donate larger sums less frequently. Personally, I am using it to fund my application and membership of the 300 and pay just once a year. This means my membership of the 300 costs ~£400 per year, rather than ~£500.
It is worth considering that the international transfer charge is a single fee per transfer and can be shared across multiple Charity Accounts owned by different people. If the timing of each donation is co-ordinated, the cost of donating falls even further.
CAF offer a referral scheme - if you mention them to your friends and they open and fund a new account, CAF top up your account with £25 for the first recommendation, £50 for the second and £100 thereafter. Go to http://friends.rogueinteractive.co.uk to tell a friend.
Please feel free to drop me a mail if you would like to join and I will send you the invitation and transfer any funds I get paid for your membership along with your first donation. Contact Alistair Tweed.

Footnote:
As a result of this initiative, I was invited to become "Methuselah Foundation Outreach Coordinator - UK", the The Methuselah Foundation's official volunteer lead for business and outreach activities in the UK, working closely with the Board and especially Dr. Aubrey de Grey, as he promotes the Foundation's mission and donors in the UK. Naturally, I was delighted to accept.