​The team at the Community Foundation is committed to keeping an eye out for trends and developments that impact charitable giving and your ability to raise funds for your organization’s mission.  
 
Here are three developments you'll want to track: 

• Although you and your donors certainly anticipate that your organization will thrive for years to come, there is no crystal ball. Sometimes, the unexpected happens and the viability of a nonprofit organization is threatened or called into question. It is especially important to consider these issues when planning for large endowment gifts. That’s why so many nonprofit organizations consult the Community Foundation about how to structure donors’ endowment gifts to ensure that the mission is served, regardless of what might happen to a particular entity. Please reach out as you work with your donors on major bequests. We can help ensure that both the donor’s intent and your mission are served across generations. 
• Be prepared to help donors with planning issues to address the anticipated changes to the estate tax exemption at the end of next year. The estate tax exemption is the total amount a taxpayer can leave to family and other individuals during their life and at death before the hefty federal gift and estate tax kicks in–is scheduled to drop, rather precipitously, after December 25, 2025. For 2024, the estate tax exemption is $13.61 million per individual, or $27.22 million per married couple, an increase over 2023 thanks to adjustments for inflation. Later this year, the IRS will issue inflation adjustments for 2025. For 2026, without legislation to prevent it, the exemption is scheduled to fall back to 2017 levels, adjusted for inflation, which would roughly total $7 million per person. That is quite a drop! This means a lot more people – including many of your donors – could be subject to estate tax in the not-too-distant future. The team at the Community Foundation is happy to help develop strategies for maximizing endowment gifts as the sunset draws near. Please reach out! 
• You’ll want to pay attention to the latest fundraising statistics, simply to be aware of what’s going on in the nonprofit sector overall. For example, while the number of new donors is up, donor retention rates continue to suffer. This does not need to be the case, however, for your organization; strong donor stewardship practices can significantly increase donor retention and even increase large gifts to your endowment. Please reach out to the Community Foundation for ideas on how to grow your endowment fund.

 
Thank you, as always, for the opportunity to work together! It is our honor to be your partner in philanthropy and community impact.  

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

​A donor-advised fund is one of many types of funds you can establish at the Community Foundation. Field-of-interest funds, designated funds, unrestricted funds, and scholarship funds are also popular and can make a big difference in the community while also fulfilling your goals for tax and charitable planning.

If you’ve established a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation, you know it’s useful because it allows you to make a tax-deductible transfer of cash or marketable securities that is immediately eligible for a charitable deduction. Then, you can recommend donations from the fund to your favorite charities to meet community needs as they emerge. 

Your gifts to your donor-advised fund are tax deductible transfers to the Community Foundation, which is a charitable organization recognized under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). The Community Foundation follows the Internal Revenue Service’s requirements that disbursements from your donor-advised fund meet certain important qualifications to preserve that charitable tax status–for everyone’s benefit. It’s a good idea to periodically review a few types of disbursements that don’t meet the IRS’s rules and therefore are not permissible donations from your donor-advised fund. For example:

• A donor-advised fund cannot be used explicitly to satisfy a personal pledge to a charitable organization, such as to a capital campaign. The team at the Community Foundation is happy to work with you to develop ways you can achieve your intentions to support your favorite organization’s fundraising goals. Please reach out if you are in this situation.
• Because donor-advised funds at the Community Foundation fall under a different (and more favorable) set of IRS rules than private foundations, a donor-advised fund is restricted from supporting a private family foundation. Please reach out to the Community Foundation team to learn more about this requirement. We’d love to explore how your donor-advised fund and your private family foundation can work together to achieve your charitable goals. Some fund holders even decide to close their private foundation and consolidate their giving with the Community Foundation to achieve greater impact, save on expenses, and achieve better tax results.
• A donor-advised fund can’t be used to buy tickets to fundraising events, such as galas and golf tournaments, where the cost of the ticket is not fully tax deductible. The reason for this is that the IRS views the taxpayer as receiving benefits from the event (food, drinks, swag), and this “private benefit” muddies the waters of tax deductibility. Even if a portion of the ticket is deductible according to the charity, it’s still not a permissible distribution from a donor-advised fund. Please reach out to the team at the Community Foundation if you’re asked to sponsor a charity’s fundraiser. We are happy to discuss solutions to achieve both your charitable goals and goals for getting involved with the event. 

We look forward to hearing from you! As always, the Community Foundation team is honored to be your first call when you encounter a question about your donor-advised fund or any other charitable giving opportunity. 

The team at the Community Foundation is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. Please consult your tax or legal advisor to learn how this information might apply to your own situation. 

As you and your team build momentum implementing your 2024 fundraising plan, keep in mind that many individual donors look at the same criteria used by foundations to determine whether to support a charitable organization. You may not even be aware that a prospective donor is conducting due diligence. Especially when a donor is considering making a large gift or setting up a bequest, gaining the donor’s confidence is key.
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The team at the Community Foundation is always happy to serve as a sounding board as you strive to continuously improve your organization’s governance and operational documentation. 

Here are 3 items you might consider reviewing as you do a little spring cleaning.
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Governing Documents
Make sure your articles of incorporation are up-to-date and reflective of your current mission. Donors who are considering a large gift will want to see that your legal documents are in ship shape, especially with respect to the language required to achieve Section 501(c)(3) status. If you’re in doubt, consult the IRS’s suggested language. You’ll also want to review your bylaws. Bylaws can become outdated, in some cases due to technology. For example, you’ll want your bylaws to include permission to use up-to-date mechanisms to gain board approval, such as through an online poll in lieu of an in-person meeting. 

Tax Returns
You’re no doubt on top of the need to file the annual Form 990 tax return. Make it a point, though, to check for consistency between your Form 990 and the Form 1023 you filed (likely years ago) to secure the IRS Determination Letter granting charitable status. Make sure your organization’s charitable purpose is still stated correctly. Consistency across key documents is important to a lot of large donors. Indeed, many donors review the Form 990 carefully before they decide to make a gift. Make sure yours is accurate and compelling. 

Gift Acceptance Policy
Make sure you’ve recently reviewed your policies for how your organization handles the acceptance of certain gifts, especially if they fall in the category of “Non-Standard Contributions” as defined by the IRS. Gifts of hard-to-value assets should not be undertaken lightly. We encourage you to reach out to the Community Foundation to assist in establishing a gift acceptance policy that will protect your organization and empower your fundraisers to engage in successful conversations with donors. To that end, the Community Foundation offers nonprofit organizations the opportunity to establish endowments and reserve funds to benefit from the Community Foundation’s governance and oversight, especially related to accepting complex gifts, as well as relying on the Community Foundation for all of the policies and administration associated with an endowment or reserve.  
 
We look forward to working with you!

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

​The Community Foundation is committed to providing timely updates on legal and policy developments to help you and other professionals who advise philanthropic clients stay on top of best practices in charitable planning. In that spirit, donor-advised funds and the rules governing these vehicles are topics that are popping up more frequently in financial and even mainstream media. Our team is closely watching these regulatory developments.  

As background, in November 2023, the Internal Revenue Service issued proposed regulations that would change the way donor-advised funds are defined and how they operate. Especially leading up to the May 6, 2024 public hearings, the proposed regulations have created quite a buzz. If you’d not yet heard about the proposed regulations, the April 19, 2024 letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, signed by 33 members of Ways and Means, might have grabbed your attention. The letter lays out concerns that “these regulations could have the unintended consequence of impeding charitable giving in our communities, particularly at our local community foundations.” You’ll hear from us when (and if) the proposed regulations, or some version thereof, go into effect and what to do about it. 

As you track the issue, however, it’s important to remember that a donor-advised fund is just one of many types of funds your clients can establish at the Community Foundation. Consider: 

• Certainly the donor-advised fund is popular because it allows your client to make a tax-deductible transfer of cash or marketable securities that is immediately eligible for a charitable deduction. Then, the client can recommend gifts to favorite charities from the fund to meet community needs as they emerge. 
• Other types of funds at the Community Foundation can be just as effective as a donor-advised fund depending on the client’s objectives. In some situations, these other fund types are even more effective than a donor-advised fund to achieve a client’s goals. 
• Field-of-interest funds and designated funds, for example, allow your client to support a charitable cause or organization they love. Unrestricted funds help your clients support future needs in the community that can’t be predicted and can only be addressed through the Community Foundation’s perpetual structure and mission to serve the community as a whole. 
• A major advantage of field-of-interest funds, designated funds, and unrestricted funds is that they are eligible recipients of the popular and tax-savvy planning tool called the Qualified Charitable Distribution, or “QCD,” available to your clients who have reached age 70 ½.  

We look forward to helping you serve your charitable clients regardless of where the proposed regulations ultimately land. And we’ll keep you posted!

The team at the community foundation is a resource and sounding board as you serve your philanthropic clients. We understand the charitable side of the equation and are happy to serve as a secondary source as you manage the primary relationship with your clients. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.  ​​

On an ongoing basis, the team at the Community Foundation tracks legislation, legal developments, trends, news, and innovative strategies for all types of charitable giving so that we can keep fund holders and their advisors up to date. 

Recently, donor-advised funds have been the subject of conversation within financial and estate planning circles, as well as a trending topic in philanthropy, related to a set of proposed regulations issued by the IRS late last year. The IRS has scheduled public hearings on the proposed regulations, set for May 6, 2024.

As just one of many types of funds your clients can establish at the Community Foundation, the donor-advised fund is popular because it allows your client to make a tax-deductible transfer of cash or marketable securities that is immediately eligible for a charitable deduction. Then, the client can recommend gifts to favorite charities from the fund to meet community needs as they emerge.

Our team has compiled a list of articles we’d recommend if you’d like to dig deeper into the topic of donor-advised funds.

• The Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative’s recently-released study of donor-advised funds reported that the majority of donor-advised funds make at least one grant per year, and the national average annual “pay-out rate” for all donor-advised funds is 18%. Donor-advised funds are frequently deployed as a tool to help philanthropists who have a wide range of financial capacity, from a little to a lot, organize their charitable giving; consistent with that function, the study found that nearly half of all donor-advised funds carry balances less than $50,000. 
• The proposed IRS regulations related to donor-advised funds are attracting significant interest in legal circles. To dig into the legal issues, you might check out this article in Financial Advisor, because it includes commentary from professionals in the field, as well as this article if you are a Bloomberg subscriber. You can also check out the Council on Foundations’ comments for additional insight. 
• For a big-picture look at the state of donor-advised funds, including the relevance of recent research and the status and implications of the proposed regulations, check out this article in Wealth Management and this article in Think Advisor. 

While these materials are useful to gain an understanding of the current situation, at this point, no one can predict what will happen with the proposed regulations--whether and how they will be revised or when they might become effective, if ever. As always, our team is staying on top of the issues. We’ll keep you posted!

The team at the Community Foundation is a resource and sounding board as you serve your philanthropic clients. We understand the charitable side of the equation and are happy to serve as a secondary source as you manage the primary relationship with your clients. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.  ​​

Tax time has its silver linings! Going over a tax return with a client helps start a productive conversation about ways to plan gifts to charity more effectively. As you scan 2023’s charitable contributions, talk with the client about whether those charitable gifts were made with cash or with other assets and then steer the conversation toward discussing the most effective assets to give to charity during 2024 and beyond. 

Here is a four-point checklist that can help you advise your clients about the range of charitable giving options. 

• Remind clients that cash is not king when it comes to charitable giving. Cash is typically not the most tax-effective form of charitable giving. Instead, encourage clients to consider giving highly-appreciated assets, including publicly-traded stock, to their fund at the Community Foundation to support their favorite charities.   
• Think even beyond stock. Encourage clients to explore not only highly-appreciated stock as a potential gift to charity, but also the various forms of “noncash” assets that can make great charitable gifts. After all, American households’ most valuable assets are retirement accounts and personal residences, not cash. Examples of assets that could be excellent charitable gifts depending on the client’s circumstances include gifts of real estate, closely-held stock, collectibles, and, for clients who are age 70 ½ and older, direct transfers from an IRA (known as a Qualified Charitable Distribution) to a field-of-interest or unrestricted fund at the Community Foundation. 
• Make it easy on yourself and your client. Reach out to the team at the Community Foundation for assistance! We are happy to help you and your client evaluate the best assets to give to a donor-advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation to achieve the client’s charitable goals.
• Close the loop on IRS reporting. Remember that the reporting requirements are different for noncash gifts to charity versus cash gifts. Make sure you are familiar with IRS Form 8283, which must be filed with any tax return claiming a deduction for noncash assets valued at $500 or more. The IRS expects strict adherence to the terms of the form, especially the requirement for a qualified appraisal. On our end, the Community Foundation will handle the confirmation of receipt and a commitment to document and notify the IRS if disposition occurs within three years.

Opening up the full range of charitable giving options for a client can help you structure a holistic estate and financial plan that meets the client’s objectives for family wealth, philanthropy, and tax effectiveness. Reach out anytime to the team at theCommunity Foundation to discuss techniques and strategies. 

The team at the Community Foundation is a resource and sounding board as you serve your philanthropic clients. We understand the charitable side of the equation and are happy to serve as a secondary source as you manage the primary relationship with your clients. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.  ​

Your clients who own highly-appreciated works of art certainly can consider making gifts of this property to a charity. Use caution, though, when helping clients structure gifts of artwork. To be eligible for a charitable deduction at fair market value, the nonprofit recipient’s use of the donated artwork must meet certain qualifications, in that the artwork has to be used for its charitable purpose (think art museums). On top of that, be wary of techniques that recently have come under severe IRS scrutiny and have been determined to circumvent the rules for tax deductions. 

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.​​​

Keep these five tips in mind as you consider your year-end giving:

1. Charitable Bunching: "Bunching" means you are "front-loading" charitable donations into the current year, knowing that you plan to make these donations anyway in future years. By structuring a large year-end gift to your donor-advised fund at the community foundation, you could surpass the standard deduction threshold to further reduce your taxes in 2023.
2. QCDs from IRAs: If you are over the age of 70 1/2, you can direct up to $100,000 from your IRA, satisfying your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), to certain charities, including a field of interest, designated, unrestricted, or scholarship fund at the community foundation. That means you avoid income tax on the fund distributed to charity.
3. Stocks vs. Cash: Gifts of long-term appreciated stock to your donor-advised or other type of fund at the community foundation is one of the most tax-savvy ways to support your favorite charitable causes because capital gains tax can be avoided.
4. Standard Deductions: The 2023 standard deduction for single taxpayers ($13,850) and married filing jointly ($27,700) is up nearly 7% over 2022. Keep your household's standard deduction amount in mind when you tally your deductible expenditures, including your gifts to charities.
5. Year-End Deadlines: Contributions must be made online, postmarked, or hand-delivered no later than December 31 to be legally completed during this tax year. All checks must be made out to the Community Foundation with the fund of choice on the memo line. Please note that the Community Foundation will not be open for hand-delivered gifts on December 30 to January 2.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.  

The shorter days of fall and winter aren’t the only sunsets creeping up on people these days. If you’ve met with your estate planning attorney and tax advisors recently, you’re probably aware that the gift and estate tax exemption–the total amount you can leave to family and other beneficiaries during life and at death before the hefty federal gift and estate tax kicks in–is about to drop, rather precipitously. 

Without legislation to prevent it, on January 1, 2026, the exemption will drop from $12,920,000 per person (that’s the 2023 exemption) to about half of that amount, depending on annual inflation increases. As the date gets closer, tax planning decisions get tougher. Make aggressive moves now to activate gifts to family members? Or hold out to see if legislation intervenes to prevent the sunset?