The primary purpose of the Foundation for Lake Chapala Charities is to facilitate donations for our vetted affiliated charities located in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico.
We have been operating since 2009, founded by Rick and Sandy Feldmann. For more than 16 years we have exceeded $3.5 million USD in distribution to local charities.
Our Foundation is recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) charity, allowing US citizens who donate to claim US tax deductions for their gifts to those charities. We encourage US taxpayers over the age of 70 to make Qualified Charitable Distributions, or QCDs, to our Foundation from their IRA or retirement plan. These transfers are not taxable but they still count toward satisfying your required minimum distributions for the year and are a cost-saving way to support the local charities you want to help.
We withhold a small administrative handling fee on all donations made by means other than PayPal to cover our overhead costs such as tax filings, office expenses, this website, and occasionally for advertising. We operate entirely by volunteers, and have no paid staff. These withheld fees are less than 2.5% of the donations we receive. We do not withhold any fees for donations made by PayPal because donors are directly assessed a processing fee by PayPal. As with any money transferred to us in Mexico from the US or Canada, there are additional banking and conversion fees.
Donors need only select a charity from our list of approved organizations on this website for that charity to receive their contributions. Any donations made to “Board-Directed Assistance” are not earmarked to a designated charity, but are given to those charities whose services are deemed most in need of assistance by our Board.
The Foundation will also gratefully accept endowments and bequests for any of our charities.
Organizations interested in being added to our list of associated charities should make a request in the Contact Us section of this site.
