Economic turbulence, inflation concerns, and a general sense of financial instability have made 2025 very challenging for a lot of people. As you consider how to support your favorite charities this year, take a moment to evaluate which assets may be best suited for your donations. In particular, the choice between giving cash or appreciated stock can have a meaningful impact on both your finances and the charities you support. The team at the Community Foundation is here to help answer your questions, including a few that are very common this year:

Should I give stock?
If you are concerned about preserving cash right now, then donating appreciated, publicly-traded stock can be a highly-effective strategy. By transferring long-term, marketable securities directly to a donor-advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation, you avoid capital gains tax and may be eligible for an income tax deduction based on the fair market value of the securities. The Community Foundation, in turn, can sell the securities without incurring tax, maximizing the dollars available to support your favorite charities. Even in a down market, many investors still hold stocks that have appreciated over time, making this a win-win for both you and the causes you care about.

Should I give cash?
If your investment portfolio has declined significantly across the board, you may prefer to contribute cash this year. Doing so allows your investments time to recover, potentially increasing their value for future charitable gifts. Contributing cash to your fund at the Community Foundation allows you to organize your giving in one place, making it easier to gather tax information when April 15 rolls around again.

How can my donor-advised fund help in challenging times for our community?
Donor-advised funds offer flexibility for your charitable giving, particularly in unpredictable market conditions. By contributing to a donor-advised fund, you receive an immediate tax deduction and can recommend grants over time, allowing you to support your favorite organizations even when your personal finances are in flux. Many people like having a reserve of charitable funds that enables them to maintain consistent support for the causes they love, regardless of market ups and downs.
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What else should I consider as I plan my charitable support this year?
Giving strategically in uncertain times is important to help stabilize the charities in our community and allow them to continue to support people in need. The Community Foundation can help you formalize long-term commitments while also ensuring that immediate needs are addressed. Maintaining support for the organizations you care about ensures their continued impact, even when resources are tight.
The team at the Community Foundation is here to help you make a difference in our community as economic pressures mount. Please reach out to discuss the best options to achieve your charitable goals, even in a year as unpredictable as this one.

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.

When you’re working on the charitable components of a client’s estate or financial plan, one of the first areas you’ll likely explore is the structure. Certainly you are familiar with both private foundations and donor-advised funds as useful charitable giving tools. Before you jump into one or the other for a particular client, though, it’s important to review the similarities and differences between the two so that you can best achieve your client’s goals.

To help you evaluate a client’s options, here are three common myths about the differences between private foundations and donor-advised funds.
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Myth #1: Donor-advised funds are all the same and only private foundations can be customized
Private foundations will always differ from donor-advised funds in important ways, not only because of their status as separate legal entities and the deductibility rules for gifts to these entities, but also because of the opportunities to customize governance. But it is a mistake to assume that a donor-advised fund is a cookie-cutter vehicle. Indeed, “donor-advised fund” is simply a term used to describe the structure of a fund and its relationship with a sponsoring organization such as a community foundation. The donor-advised fund vehicle itself is extremely flexible. Here’s why:

• Donor-advised funds are popular because they allow your client to make a tax-deductible transfer of cash or marketable securities that is immediately eligible for a charitable deduction. Then, your client can recommend gifts to favorite charities from the fund when the time is right.
• A donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation is frequently a more effective choice than a donor-advised fund offered through a financial institution. That’s because at a community foundation, your client is part of a community of giving and has opportunities to collaborate with other donors who share similar interests. Plus, the Community Foundation is itself local and is deeply knowledgeable about the needs of our region and the nonprofits meeting those needs.
• The Community Foundation can work with you and your client to build a charitable giving plan that extends for multiple future generations. That is because the team at the Community Foundation supports your clients in strategic grant making, family philanthropy, and opportunities to learn about local issues and nonprofits making a difference.

Myth #2: Deciding whether to establish a donor-advised fund or a private foundation mostly depends on size
The size of a donor-advised fund, like the size of a private foundation, is unlimited. The United States’ largest private foundations are valued well into the billions of dollars. Information about private foundations, ironically, is not so private. The Internal Revenue Service provides public access to private foundations’ Form 990 tax returns. That is not the case for individual donor-advised funds.

Similarly, donor-advised funds are not subject to an upper limit. Although information on the asset size of individual donor-advised funds is not publicly available, anecdotal information indicates that some donor-advised funds' assets may total in the billions of dollars.

Indeed, a donor-advised fund of any size can be an effective alternative to a private foundation, thanks to fewer expenses to establish and maintain, maximum tax benefits (higher deductibility limitations and fair market valuation for contributing hard-to-value assets), no excise taxes, and confidentiality (including the ability to grant anonymously to charities).

The net-net here is that the decision of whether to establish a donor-advised fund or a private foundation–or both–is much less a function of size than it is other factors that are tied more closely to the objectives a client is trying to achieve.

Myth #3: Donor-advised funds and private foundations are mutually exclusive
Make sure you’re aware of the benefits of using both a donor-advised fund and a private foundation to accomplish clients’ charitable goals. For example:

• Donor-advised funds can help meet the need for anonymity in certain grants, which is typically difficult using a private foundation on its own.
• A donor-advised fund can receive a client’s gifts of highly-appreciated, nonmarketable assets such as closely-held stock and real estate, and benefit from favorable tax deduction rules not available for gifts to a private foundation.
• An integrated donor-advised fund and private foundation approach can help a client balance and diversify investment and distribution strategies to ensure that giving to important causes remains steady even in market downturns.

Some private foundations are even considering transferring their assets to a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation to carry on the foundation’s mission. Terminating a private foundation and consolidating giving through a donor-advised fund is sometimes the best alternative for a client when the day-to-day management and administration of the private foundation has become more time-consuming than expected and is taking time and focus away from nonprofits, the community, and making grants.

Along these lines, some families find that the tax rules related to investments, distributions, and “self-dealing” have become harder to navigate and are perhaps even preventing the family from maximizing tax benefits of charitable giving. Finally, the administrative load of managing a private foundation sometimes becomes overwhelming, especially if the family members who handled these functions initially have retired, passed away, or simply become busy with other projects.

The bottom line here is that we encourage you to reach out to the team at the Community Foundation anytime you are evaluating how to structure a charitable giving plan to achieve both your client’s charitable goals and financial goals. Our team is here to help. In many cases, the Community Foundation’s tools and services are a great fit for your client’s needs. If not, we will point you in the right direction.

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 attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, you know very well that trust is at the foundation of your relationships with clients. Your clients are seeking a similar level of trust with the people and organizations that are helping carry out their philanthropic wishes.

Fortunately, trust in charities has shown an increase after a recent dip. According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer and the Independent Sector's "Trust in Nonprofits and Philanthropy" report, trust in nonprofits rebounded by 5 points to 57% in 2024, following a four-year decline. This increase positions nonprofits as the most trusted sector compared to government, business, and media. Still, nonprofits face challenges and concerns about maintaining this trust, including general skepticism about institutions, as well as increasing expectations that charities demonstrate transparency and accountability.

As you work with your charitable clients, keep in mind that the Community Foundation can help bolster clients’ trust in their favorite charities. Here’s how:

Trustworthy information about particular charities
The Community Foundation is a valuable source for objective, timely information about specific charities and the impact of particular programs. By working with the Community Foundation, your clients can leverage a transparent and trustworthy avenue for learning about how best to make a difference for their favorite causes. 

Wide-ranging expertise about community needs
At its core, the Community Foundation is committed to achieving impact. This means that our team keeps a finger on the pulse of local needs, whether related to social services, health care, education, the environment, the arts, community development, or any other community priority. With a deep understanding about community needs, the Community Foundation team can be an excellent sounding board for your clients who want to learn which charities are addressing each need and how those charities are measuring results.

Broad set of tools for structuring charitable gifts
The Community Foundation can help establish a tax-efficient structure to achieve each client’s goals for community impact. Available vehicles include not only donor-advised funds, but also other types of funds such as designated funds to support specific charities and field-of-interest funds to address particular causes, as well as multi-generational funds to involve clients’ children and grandchildren. The Community Foundation offers your clients a flexible and effective way to manage charitable giving by simplifying their giving processes and maximizing potential tax benefits.

As always, we want to be your first call! Please reach out to the Community Foundation team anytime the topic of charitable giving comes up during a client conversation.

​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.

In an environment where immediate community needs are never-ending (and actually seem to be skyrocketing), it’s really hard to carve out energy and time in your fundraising plan to make room for planned giving. We understand! The team at the Community Foundation knows how crucial it is for our community’s charities to attract as many donor dollars as possible to meet 2025’s mounting demands.
Ignoring a planned giving plan altogether, though, would be a mistake. You’d be sacrificing the long-term longevity of your mission. Intellectually, nonprofit fundraising professionals understand this. It’s just that it seems so hard to do at the moment, in the midst of turbulent times and emotional drain. 

Keep your planned giving spirits high by considering the following:

• Donors’ planned gifts, such as bequests, are often significantly larger than annual donations. For instance, the average charitable bequest can range from $37,000 to $78,360, which is substantially higher than typical annual gifts. That’s because donors can make planned gifts from assets they might not be able to part with during their lifetime, such as naming a charity as beneficiary of a retirement plan.
• You may discover that engaging a donor in planned giving conversations actually enhances the donor’s annual giving and campaign giving. This is because you’re engaging a donor through yet another touchpoint, reinforcing that there are multiple ways to align values and beliefs with thoughtful gifts to support your mission and your endowment. Indeed, donors who arrange for a planned gift may increase their annual giving by up to 75% and beyond!
• Keep in mind that planned gifts are often unrestricted. This allows you to allocate the funds where they are most needed and, importantly, grow your endowment.
• Pursuing planned gifts may not be as time-consuming as you think, especially given the return on investment often yielded by a planned gift. For instance, according to at least one study, for every dollar spent on promoting bequests, charities can expect an average return of $56.83, significantly higher than other fundraising methods.

The key is to make it easy. Here’s how:

• Small tweaks to your marketing materials. Try to at least mention the opportunity for planned giving somewhere on each marketing asset. Make sure your website mentions your endowment fund at the Community Foundation. The same goes for printed materials, one-pagers, email newsletters, and annual appeal letters. Even though you mostly are asking for a current gift, don’t forget to mention that you’re always open to a discussion about endowment gifts through a bequest or beneficiary designation.
• Always mention it, even if briefly. Talk with your major gift donors about the importance of your endowment and operating reserves to the organization’s ability to weather the ups and downs of the market and community needs. Sometimes donors don’t think about the “business” side of nonprofits. Even if your meeting is about something else, you can at least plant seeds. 
• Offer real inspiration. If you can, find a current donor who is open to your organization sharing the story of the donor’s intentions to leave a planned gift to your endowment fund in addition to making regular annual gifts. Role models are powerful.

We look forward to working with you to help you grow your endowment! The Community Foundation is committed to your success. We believe in philanthropy’s ability to improve the quality of life in our region through outstanding nonprofit organizations delivering services to people who need it most. Thank you for all you do.

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

Repeat, repeat, repeat. You may feel like you are constantly talking with your donors about the benefits of giving appreciated stock. Your talk track may go something like this:

• “Before you reach for your checkbook to make a gift to our endowment fund at the Community Foundation, consider giving highly-appreciated stock.”
• “Appreciated stock is frequently a far more advantageous gift to charity than giving cash.”
• “When you make a gift of shares held for more than one year, you’ll typically be eligible for a charitable deduction at the shares’ fair market value on the date of the gift.”
• “Plus, our endowment fund is a charity and therefore capital gains tax won’t be triggered on the sale of the shares, leaving the full fair market value available to grow our endowment and pave the way for the future success of our mission.”
• “By contrast, if you’d sold the shares yourself and given the proceeds to our endowment fund, you’d owe capital gains tax. This can be a big hit if you’ve held the shares for many years and they’ve got a low basis.”
• “It’s easy to transfer stock to our endowment fund because we work hand-in-hand with the Community Foundation team.”

You say all of this so much that you’re sick of it, so surely your donors are sick of hearing it too, right? Wrong. Your donors don’t live and breathe charitable giving like those of us who work in the nonprofit sector day in and day out. So, not only is the subject matter sometimes challenging, but it’s also likely that donors are not paying attention most of the time. Indeed, a lot of donors are missing out on the benefits of giving stock instead of cash.

Building your endowment fund, like any type of fundraising, is a long game. You have to keep repeating key messages so that the point finally gets across, often when the timing is just right and the topic of tax planning or charitable giving happens to be on a donor’s mind.

The team at the Community Foundation is always happy to serve as a sounding board for key messages and strategies to build your endowment, one person and one gift at a time, over and over–and over–again. We’re honored to work 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 honored to work with so many wonderful nonprofit organizations in our region that are improving quality of life every single day. We know that it’s important for you to grow endowment assets to create a permanent source of support for your mission.

You’ve likely made it a priority to provide ongoing education and information to your donors to help them understand how your endowment works and why it’s so important to the future of your organization. Occasionally, a donor may ask you about the difference between making a gift to support your endowment, or, in the alternative, establishing a separate endowment fund at the Community Foundation to support your organization.

Here’s a little background that may help you explain the differences to your donors. In either case, our team can help, so please do reach out.

Building your endowment fund. Many donors will want to support your endowment fund held at the Community Foundation. Your board of directors may from time to time elect to make transfers from your organization’s assets to the fund. Your organization’s endowment fund is sometimes referred to as “quasi-endowment” because your board of directors has some degree of flexibility to access the principal for certain stated purposes such as emergencies. Annual distributions to supplement your organization’s budget are often made from the endowment fund based on market value percentages.

Donor-designated endowment fund. Sometimes, a donor would like to support your organization by establishing a separate and permanent designated endowment at the Community Foundation, whether during lifetime or through a bequest. In that case, the board of directors and staff at the Community Foundation will oversee income payments to your organization and also ensure that the principal stays intact in perpetuity. In many cases, a donor will want to structure an endowment gift as a designated fund to benefit your organization while also leaning on the Community Foundation for support. The donor can name the fund whatever they’d like (e.g., the Smith Family Endowment Fund).

The Community Foundation team is experienced at managing the accounting, investment, and distribution aspects of all types of endowment funds. When you work with the Community Foundation, it’s convenient and rewarding to establish and grow your organization’s endowment, as well as offer donors the option to set up a separate named endowment fund. Both types of gifts help your mission stay strong and improve the quality of life for future generations.

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

If you’ve ever considered wrapping charitable giving into a child’s birthday party, you are not alone! Lots of parents are encouraging their kids to have guests bring gifts to charity instead of presents, whether it's collecting books for a children's hospital, pet toys for an animal shelter, or non-perishable food for a local food bank. Guests can feel part of something special by bringing items that align with the birthday child's interests, and the party can include activities like making cards for the elderly or packaging donations together.

Even bigger than that, though, is the opportunity to educate your kids, starting at an early age, about charities and how every dollar can make a difference. Here are a few pointers:

Be intentional. Teaching children the value of charitable giving requires intentional strategies that blend financial education with empathy-building experiences. By including philanthropy as a regular part of your family routines and traditions, you can help your kids understand wealth as a tool for positive impact rather than just personal gain. Over time, you’ll see that this approach fosters both financial literacy and compassion for others.

It starts with money–and more. It’s often helpful to start the conversation by talking about money management and community needs, side by side. For example, you can explain how $100 might feed a family for a week, or how $1,000 could fund educational supplies for an entire classroom. You could even help your kids create a "giving budget” so they can practice ways to make their intentions visual and concrete. If you have established a donor-advised fund or other type of fund at the Community Foundation, log in to your account and show your kids how it works. 

Offer choices. Most kids don’t like to be told what to do (!), so it’s important to empower children by showing them how to research and pick causes that are aligned with their interests. The Community Foundation’s website is a great place to start. This is where kids can see the big picture of how charitable giving connects to our region’s quality of life, as well as learn about the Community Foundation’s priority initiatives and the nonprofits doing important work on the ground every day.

Get out and about. Children (and adults) learn by doing, so try to find opportunities for hands-on involvement. You and your kids could volunteer together at food banks, organize neighborhood donation drives, or create handmade items for those in need. The Community Foundation is always happy to offer resources that will help you and your family find volunteer opportunities that are a good fit for your areas of interest and the ages of your children.
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As always, the Community Foundation is happy to be your sounding board as you get your family involved in charitable giving. We are honored to work with all generations of community-minded people! The future of our region depends on it, and we are here to help.

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.

​At some point during your adult life, you’ve likely realized that it would be wise to put in place a will, trust, and powers of attorney, as well as undertake at least a basic level of financial planning to stay on track with retirement and other wealth-related goals for yourself and for your family. Perhaps you’re also among the many people who have thoughtfully incorporated charitable giving strategies into a comprehensive financial and estate plan.
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If you’ve not yet wrapped charitable giving provisions into your will, trust, and financial plans, it’s never too late (or too early) to do so. The Community Foundation is happy to work with you and your legal, tax, and wealth advisors to set up charitable giving structures and processes that align with your intentions to support favorite charities and causes, as well as reinforce the tax and estate planning objectives you’ve set in motion.

Indeed, formalizing your charitable intentions can bring a deep sense of purpose. By incorporating charitable giving into your estate plan, your values and philanthropic commitments can continue beyond your lifetime. 

What’s more, lifetime charitable giving can be part of a strategic wealth management plan, allowing you to optimize your financial resources while supporting causes you care about. For example, charitable income tax deductions for your donations may reduce your taxable income and lower your annual tax bill. Plus, donating appreciated assets, such as publicly-traded stock held for more than one year, can help you avoid capital gains taxes. In addition, dollars flowing to charities following your death can help minimize the burden of estate taxes.

The Community Foundation team would be honored to help you develop a philanthropy plan, starting with lifetime giving and incorporating estate gifts as your legacy intentions take shape. As you consider whether the time might be right for you to formalize your charitable giving, here are three tips to consider - all of which the Community Foundation can help you achieve:

Give to what you know. Most people experience the greatest joy from giving to causes that are personally familiar. Personal experience makes it easier to understand how the charity is using your dollars. So, for example, if you’ve had experience with helping foster children, you are likely to understand how the organization is using your donation to support training for foster parents. Please ask the Community Foundation team for insights! It’s our job to keep up with the good work of charities that are meeting local needs.

Give where you are. Even with the increasing number of community challenges across the country and the globe, sometimes the greatest needs are right here at home. The Community Foundation team can help you identify opportunities to support local charities by gathering information about the overall need and how a particular charity addresses that need. When you give to local organizations, you are in a strong position to have confidence in your gift.

Give to the causes you love. Donations to charities that are aligned with your own passions make you feel the best and ultimately make the most difference because you’re likely to continue giving. The Community Foundation team is here to help bring your community dreams to life through the power of philanthropy. And that feels great!

If you’ve already established a donor-advised fund or other type of fund with the Community Foundation, or if you are considering getting started with the Community Foundation this year, we are here for you! The Community Foundation is honored to serve as your home for charitable giving. Our team looks forward to hearing from you.

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.

Opinion by Cynthia H. Shabb
Originally Published in the Grand Forks Herald on March 14, 2025

Over the past seven weeks, the president of the United States has signed dozens of executive orders covering a broad range of issues. The president and Congress have also engaged in other actions to cut federal funding. This has created a state of uncertainty for nonprofit organizations. Some federal grants and contracts have been paused or canceled, immediately affecting nonprofit work. There is a lack of information about current and future grants.

Over 300 nonprofit organizations contribute to the social environment in and around Grand Forks by providing countless services to the community. This includes housing, food security, health care, mental health care, social services, domestic violence services, education, immigrant integration, civic and social clubs, sports leagues, fitness centers, arts programs, environmental services, animal welfare, religious organizations, and more.

Nonprofit organizations also drive the economy by being a major employer, engaging high numbers of volunteers, and generating significant revenue for the local economy. Nonprofits pay wages, unrelated business income and other taxes, and are purchasers of goods and services.

It is important to understand the significant impact nonprofits have, not only in our local community, but also in the state. The North Dakota Association of Nonprofit Organizations (NDANO) created a statewide Sector Report in 2022. It reported that there were 3,886 nonprofits in North Dakota who employed 54,953 people, paying $2.6 billion in annual wages. 218,019 North Dakotans volunteered, contributing 15.6 million hours of services equivalent to $377.8 million. Nonprofit organizations have an incredible financial impact on both local and state levels.

The actions of the federal government are forcing nonprofit organizations in Grand Forks and the surrounding region to consider what they will do as their federal funding changes. They have already had to reduce their workforce, reduce and eliminate programs and services, and more reductions may come. Some nonprofits may even have to close their doors. This will put a heavier burden on local communities, states, private grantors, and individual donors to ensure organizations can continue to operate.

Every member of our community benefits from the work of nonprofit organizations in one way or another. It is vital to contact legislators, sharing why local nonprofits are important. Fully executed executive orders and federal funding cuts will have negative impacts on our community. Additionally, each one of us should give what we are able to support nonprofits in our area.
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Cynthia Shabb, of Grand Forks, is the executive director of the Global Friends Coalition. This letter is a collaborative effort of nonprofit organizations in the Grand Forks region who want to promote, protect and strengthen the nonprofit sector.

April 15 is right around the corner! Now is a good time to review a few basic tax principles related to charitable giving so that you’re prepared for donor conversations. Tax planning is on their minds, and you don’t want to miss an opportunity to secure a gift to your endowment fund.
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Your donors give for lots of reasons other than a tax deduction.
With taxes on the minds of so many donors this time of year, it’s important to remember that it’s not all about the tax deduction! Charitable giving is a priority for the vast majority of affluent families. Indeed, among people who own investments of $5 million or more, 91% of those surveyed reported that charitable giving is a component of their estate and financial plans. In another study, most affluent investors cited reasons for giving well beyond the possibility of a tax deduction and would not automatically reduce their giving if the charitable income tax deduction went away. During the fundraising process, be aware of donors’ non-tax motivations for giving, such as family traditions, personal experiences, and compassion for your mission.

Your donors may still default to giving cash, so you have to stay in front of them.
Many donors simply are not aware of the tax benefits of giving highly-appreciated assets to their favorite charities. Even if you feel like you say it a lot, keep saying it! Donors often forget or are in a hurry and end up writing checks and making donations with their credit cards. It’s really important to remind your donors about the benefits of donating non-cash assets such as highly-appreciated publicly-traded stock, or even complex assets (e.g., closely-held business interests and real estate).

The Community Foundation can help you work with donors to give highly-appreciated assets in lieu of cash to your endowment fund. This in turn can help donors reduce - significantly - capital gains tax exposure, and they can calculate the deduction based on the full fair market value of the gifted assets.

Your donors may not remember the basic rules of deductibility.
It’s important to know that the deductibility rules are different for donors’ gifts to a public charity (such as your endowment fund at the Community Foundation) on one hand, and their gifts to a private foundation on the other hand. Donors’ gifts to your organization directly, or to your endowment fund, are deductible up to 60% of AGI for cash gifts and 30% of AGI for gifts of other assets. Gifts to private foundations are deductible up to 30% of AGI for cash gifts and 20% of AGI for gifts of other assets. In addition, gifts to public charities of non-marketable assets such as real estate and closely-held stock typically are deductible at fair market value, while the same assets given to a private foundation are deductible at the donor’s cost basis. This difference can be enormous in terms of dollars, so make sure you let your donors know about this if they are planning a major gift.

Make it a habit to repeat the tax basics in your donor communications. This will help you grow your endowment fund not only during tax time, but also throughout the year. As always, the Community Foundation is here to help! Reach out anytime!

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

As you and your team review lists to identify potential endowment and legacy donors, it’s easy to slip into the habit of zeroing in on donors who are well-established in their careers and businesses, nearing retirement, or already retired. Of course, you’ll want to target these groups because they are likely to have the capacity to make large gifts, and they may be in a position to revise their estate plans or beneficiary designations to include your endowment fund.

But don’t stop there! Expand your endowment and legacy fundraising outreach to include not only Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials, but also Gen Z. Gen Z’s philanthropic engagement defies stereotypes about short-term thinking, with 84% already supporting causes through donations, volunteering, or advocacy—demonstrating a readiness to commit to long-term impact despite their youth. Certainly their financial contributions may be smaller due to early-career stages, but their focus on social justice, climate action, and equity aligns with the legacy-building nature of planned giving.

Here are three strategies to keep in mind:

• As Gen Z donors get into the workforce, they’ll be enrolling in 401(k)s and other retirement programs through their employers. This presents an opportunity for you to educate donors early in their careers about the significant tax benefits of naming a charity as the beneficiary of their retirement plans.
• Regularly include messaging in your fundraising communications about the importance of your endowment to your mission’s sustainability for generations to come. The role your organization plays in the community’s future is an important message for Gen Z to hear repeatedly.
• Use messages that demonstrate trust and transparency because these concepts resonate particularly well with Gen Z’s values. This helps signal that your mission is worth supporting long-term, an important factor in light of Gen Z’s eagerness to plan ahead.

Proactively engaging Gen Z now will help your organization secure future revenue and build on young people’s sincere desire to make a difference. Please reach out to the Community Foundation team to discuss ways you can engage Gen Z to strengthen your endowment and legacy giving strategies.

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

The team at the Community Foundation is always happy to help you evaluate potential gifts to your endowment fund. This is especially the case when a donor proposes giving something other than cash or marketable securities.

When a donor mentions the possibility of giving real estate or closely-held stock, for example, please reach out to our team. One of the benefits of housing your endowment at the Community Foundation is that we can serve as your back office for complex gifts as well as serving as a sounding board for giving strategies in general.

One of the most important factors to remember is that valuing and accepting complex gifts like real estate and closely-held stock is not easy! The Community Foundation will help you make sure that the donor and the donor’s advisors are aware of the IRS’s rigorous requirements for securing a qualified appraisal of a complex gift. Failure to follow these rules could wipe out the otherwise excellent tax benefits to the donor. These assets are called “complex” and “hard-to-value” for a reason!

Even though complex gifts can present inherent challenges, they’re still worth pursuing. Charities that cultivate hard-to-value assets such as real estate and closely-held stock can unlock significant advantages for both their missions and their donors. Remember that unlike gifts of nonmarketable assets to a private foundation, a donor’s gift of a nonmarketable asset to your endowment fund or other public charity can qualify for a full fair market value charitable deduction, up to 30% of AGI, and also avoid capital gains tax.

What’s more, beyond real estate and closely-held stock, the Community Foundation is happy to work with you and a donor to explore gifts of other complex assets, such as cryptocurrency, NFTs, and intellectual property, which expands philanthropic opportunities for donors who are business owners and investors in alternative assets.

Keeping an eye out for opportunities to attract hard-to-value assets will help you build a resilient endowment fund at the Community Foundation while also empowering your donors to optimize their financial and philanthropic legacies. The Community Foundation helps you bridge expertise gaps, handle asset liquidation, invest the proceeds, and meet regulatory requirements so that you and your team can focus on donor relationships and impact. Please reach out to talk with our team.

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

Keeping up with an ever-evolving landscape of tax legislation can be a full-time job! Many attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors regularly ask the Community Foundation to provide a refresher course on the potential tax changes on the horizon in 2025, especially those that might impact charitable planning techniques.

Here’s a quick rundown of three things you need to know:

• Sunsetting provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The TCJA’s scheduled expiration at the end of 2025 will revert key tax policies to pre-2017 levels, potentially affecting charitable giving incentives. For example, the top individual tax rate is scheduled for a bump from 37% to 39.6%, potentially increasing the benefits of charitable tax deductions for your high-income clients. At the same time, the limit for cash donations to public charities is slated to drop from 60% of AGI to 50%, reducing the deduction for some of your clients. Finally, the estate tax exemption is scheduled to drop to approximately $7 million per individual. Because the exemption would nearly be cut in half, and therefore more estates would be subject to tax, a larger subset of your clients could benefit from charitable bequests to avoid estate tax. All of this assumes, of course, that intervening legislation won’t prevent the sunset.
• Potential expansion of charitable deduction. Proposals like the Charitable Act aim to introduce a universal deduction for non-itemizers, broadening tax incentives for your clients across income levels. The bill is still popular among industry leaders and appears to have maintained momentum since it was introduced.
• Consequences remain to be seen. Above all, the 2025 “cliff” may trigger the first major tax code rewrite in decades, which in turn surely would have a ripple effect in many areas of your clients’ lives, including within the charities your clients support. Post-TCJA, for example, charitable giving dropped by as much as $20 billion, according to one study, in the wake of reduced tax benefits.

The bottom line here is that we’ve got you! The team at the Community Foundation stays on top of legal developments at the intersection of tax policy and charitable giving. We keep our fingers on the pulse of potential implications for you, your clients, and the charities they support, and we are here to help you navigate the changes.

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.

Chances are, you’ve already begun to notice that a major transfer of wealth is happening as your Baby Boomer clients establish financial and estate plans to pass their wealth to their Gen X and Millennial children.

The dollars involved are eye-popping. Most attorneys, financial advisors, and CPAs have seen the Cerulli study’s estimate that $124 trillion in wealth in the U.S. will transfer through 2048. The research estimates that most of this wealth - $105 trillion - will pass directly to children, grandchildren, and other heirs. And, notably, the study estimates that $18 trillion will flow to philanthropy.

As the transfer of wealth gains momentum, advisors have a major opportunity to position themselves as trusted experts who can help clients not only structure efficient lifetime and estate gifts to heirs, but also help ensure that clients’ charitable wishes are achieved. It’s crucial for advisors to know that the Community Foundation is here to help incorporate philanthropy into clients’ financial and estate plans. 

Here’s why this is so important:

• There’s a knowledge gap. Clients may not be aware of the options and benefits of charitable planning. Even many of your affluent clients may still be writing checks to their favorite charities, not realizing that gifts of appreciated stock, for example, can be more tax-efficient, and that tools at the Community Foundation, such as donor-advised funds, can be incredibly useful.
• Next-level strategies are key. Your ultra-wealthy clients will likely need to implement sophisticated strategies for transferring assets smoothly and tax-efficiently. Clients want to maximize the results of their charitable gifts while also protecting their families' interests. Leaning on the Community Foundation to help structure gifts of complex assets, such as closely-held business interests, can make a huge difference in reducing a client’s tax bill and achieving meaningful community impact.
• Legacy planning starts now. It’s tempting to put off addressing a client’s wishes to support favorite charities in an estate plan. “We’ll look at that in a few years,” is a common but less-than-ideal approach. That’s because charitable bequests are best addressed as part of a comprehensive estate and financial plan. Naming a fund at the Community Foundation as the beneficiary of a client’s IRA, for example, is an extremely tax-efficient way to accomplish charitable wishes.

Our team is here to augment your expertise in charitable giving strategies. Not only will you be better able to meet clients’ needs, but you’ll also strengthen relationships and improve client retention. Please reach out to learn more about how the Community Foundation can help your clients make a lasting impact with their wealth while achieving their financial goals.

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.

According to the 2023 Giving USA Report released in June 2024, charitable bequests, totaling nearly $43 billion, are up 4.8% over the previous year, keeping pace with inflation. This extraordinary generosity signals the possibility of tremendous impact in our community and in communities across the country.

We are grateful to so many of you who have chosen to leave an estate gift to the Community Foundation. Whether your will or trust includes a bequest to your fund at the Community Foundation, or whether you’ve named the Community Foundation as the beneficiary of your IRA, your gift will help improve the quality of life for people in our region for years to come.

At the Community Foundation, we’re honored to work with donors who are not only interested in leaving a legacy, but also want to maximize giving during their lifetimes. Indeed, many donors are interested in establishing a donor-advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation for a variety of reasons:

• They want to experience the joy of seeing the results of their gifts.
• Parallel to providing financial support through their community foundation fund, many donors enjoy the opportunity to get involved, whether as a volunteer, board member, or simply an observer at site visits to charities they support.
• They want to involve their children and grandchildren in supporting favorite charities, especially by working with the Community Foundation through a family donor-advised fund.
• They like the added perk that they may be eligible for an income tax deduction for lifetime charitable gifts and that the gifted assets are no longer subject to potential future estate taxes.

Please reach out to our team. The Community Foundation would be honored to work with you as you incorporate lifetime giving into your charitable giving plan that already includes a generous and much-appreciated estate gift to the Community Foundation. Thank you for being part of the Community Foundation!

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

Your favorite charities are grateful for your support over the years. Whether you make your gifts outright or support charities using a donor-advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation, every gift makes a difference in the quality of life in our community.
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You may even care about your favorite charities so much that you strive to send over a donation every month throughout the year. In some cases, this works well for the charity, especially if its budget is particularly lean month-to-month or if monthly recurring donations are a priority for the charity’s public relations goals or other strategic reasons. It’s worth knowing, however, that in some situations, consolidating your gifts into a single annual donation is actually better for everyone, including the charity.

Here’s why:

Although recurring donations offer predictable cash flow for organizations, the processing fees and administrative burdens can disproportionately affect charities when donations are fragmented. By giving one substantial annual contribution to each of your favorite charities—whether personally or through your donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation—you can maximize impact while reducing operational costs for the charities.

Indeed, you might not realize the degree to which processing fees can erode small donations. Every transaction carries fixed costs, of course, regardless of size. A check, for example, can cost charities more than $3.50 to process by the time you add up bank fees, processor charges, and staff time. Even supposedly “streamlined” digital donations via credit cards and digital wallets incur fees that sometimes can add up to more than 4% of the donation amount.

As an example, a single $100 annual gift via check might cost a charity $3.61, but four $25 quarterly donations via check could result in more than $14 in processing fees--consuming more than 14% of the donated amount!

The direct costs associated with each check are just part of the expense. Nonprofits spend valuable resources reconciling accounts and managing donor records for each transaction. A single annual contribution can help reduce these often hidden costs, allowing charities to focus on mission-driven work rather than processing paperwork. This efficiency gain can be particularly crucial for small charities, which often operate with lean teams and tight budgets.

If you’re interested in shifting from monthly to annual giving and you’ve not yet established a donor-advised fund, you might consider doing so. A single contribution to your donor-advised fund each year allows you to claim an immediate tax deduction, and then in turn process an annual grant to each of the charities you’d like to support. This approach can help eliminate processing costs.

For example, if you typically give a total of $1,200 each year to your place of worship and you started providing that support in a single annual transaction, such as through your donor-advised fund, instead of writing twelve $100 checks, you could save your place of worship nearly $50 in processing costs. Plus, you’ll personally benefit from simplified record-keeping with one annual receipt for the gift to your donor-advised fund rather than tracking multiple transactions.

Whether you’re supporting local social service agencies, arts organizations, alma maters, or places of worship, consolidated giving ensures that more dollars flow directly to services rather than getting eaten up by processes and fees. What a terrific example of financial stewardship to honor both your own generosity as well as your favorite charities’ operational realities. Please reach out to the Community Foundation today to learn more about how annual consolidated giving might fit into your philanthropy plan.

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.

​Tax time is a great reason to review the basics! At the Community Foundation, our goal is to help make the tax aspects of your charitable giving as easy and effective as possible. If you’ve already established a donor-advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation, or if you’re considering starting a fund in 2025, it may be helpful to scan a quick reference guide of FAQs for a few of the tax rules that apply to charitable giving.
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Where charitable giving is concerned, why does it matter whether or not I itemize my deductions?
Charitable contributions can only be deducted if you itemize your deductions. If you do your own taxes, you’ll report deductions on Schedule A of IRS Form 1040. Itemization is only available if your total deductions exceed the standard deduction. For example, for tax year 2024 (the tax return you’ll file in 2025), the standard deduction is $14,600 for single filers and $29,200 for joint filers. As you look at 2025 and beyond, check with the Community Foundation about how your donor-advised fund can help you cross the itemization threshold while still carrying out your multi-year annual giving plans to support your favorite charities.

If I use my donor-advised fund to make all of my gifts to charity, do I need receipts for all of those gifts?
No! A big advantage of organizing your giving through a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation is that you can make a single gift of cash–or even better, appreciated stock–to your donor-advised fund, and then support your favorite charities from that fund. This means the only tax receipt you need is the one that documents your gift to the Community Foundation for your donor-advised fund.

What documentation is required for me to take a charitable deduction?
Donations over $250 require written acknowledgment from the charity. The Community Foundation provides this for gifts you make to your donor-advised fund or other type of fund. Use IRS Form 8283 for non-cash contributions valued at $500 or more. Appraisals are required for donations valued over $5,000 (such as private stock and real estate).

How much of my income can I deduct for charitable donations to the Community Foundation and other public charities?
Cash donations to public charities (including your fund at the Community Foundation) are deductible up to 60% of adjusted gross income. Donations of non-cash assets, such as appreciated stock or real estate, are deductible up to 30% of AGI. Remember that donating appreciated assets held for more than one year to a fund at the Community Foundation can avoid capital gains tax; the Community Foundation does not pay tax when it sells the asset, leaving more money in the fund to support your favorite causes than you would have if you had sold the asset and donated the cash.

What are the rules for IRA distributions to a charity?
If you’re age 70 ½ or older, you can make Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs), up to $108,000 in 2025, from IRAs to certain types of funds at the Community Foundation (such as designated funds or unrestricted funds, but not donor-advised funds). QCDs can satisfy your required minimum distributions.

As always, the Community Foundation is here to help you achieve your charitable goals during tax season and throughout the year as you implement a philanthropy plan that meets both your financial goals as well as your goals for making a difference in the community.

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.

​Family Day began at the North Dakota Museum of Art under the leadership of Sue Fink in 2004. The original goal of the program, initially called Saturday Art Workshops, was to provide children and their families an opportunity to engage in art activities while exploring a wide variety of media with modeling and guidance.

As the current Education Director, I am continually striving to bring fresh and exciting experiences to our Family Day programming. My goal is to ensure that everyone feels welcomed at our museum, and for young people, the chance to connect with art can have a lasting impact on their lives. Equally important are the parents and caregivers who bring their children to these events, encouraging creativity and fostering a love of art that extends beyond the museum walls.

For over twenty years, we’ve been inviting participants of all ages to explore diverse artistic practices while surrounded by stunning artwork in the spacious museum galleries. In 2024, we were proud to welcome over a thousand curious guests, alongside numerous arts organizations and local artists who partnered with us to foster a deeper appreciation for art and highlight its significance in our community.

Family Day events are always free and open to the public, ensuring accessibility for all families. We are able to keep it that way thanks to the generous support of foundations, businesses, and individual donors who believe in the power of art to connect and inspire. Local businesses contribute through in-kind donations, and individuals support the program through their gifts.

The support from the Community Foundation makes it possible for us to provide materials, bring in guest artists, and maintain a welcoming space where families can experience the joy of creating together.

Each event is held on the fourth Saturday of select months (October, November, January, February, March, and April) from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, offering hands-on projects and unique collaborative experiences. The atmosphere is casual, encouraging families to drop in, create, and leave when they’re ready. These events inspire children by connecting our world-class exhibitions to real hands-on experiences—just like the artists they see on our walls.

For example:

• For A Beautiful Mess: Knotters and Weavers of the Vanguard, we created woven baskets.
• For New Acquisitions, we explored a variety of artistic styles, encouraging participants to experiment with different approaches inspired by the artworks, such as air-dry clay, collage, and watercolor paint.
• For Maurice Sendak: 50 Years, we partnered with local libraries and community organizations to celebrate the beloved author and illustrator. We also created monsters inspired by Where the Wild Things Are.
• This fall, for Stories of Place, we explored paper marbling and pin-and-thread art.
• Most recently, for Women at War: An Exhibition by Contemporary Women Artists from Ukraine, we explored traditional Ukrainian folk arts, including Motanka doll-making.

One of the most exciting aspects of Family Day is witnessing the creativity of our young participants. At a recent event, a child made a Motanka doll with a mohawk, putting their own twist on a Ukrainian tradition. During a collage activity, two sisters collaborated on a piece they called "Bird Lady", featuring photos of Queen Elizabeth surrounded by dollar bills and birds.

In addition to being inspired by our exhibitions, I always try to introduce a new medium for our guests to explore. We’ve had a variety of activities, including painting, clay, fiber arts, scratchboard art, pumpkin decorating, and more. Our volunteers play a key role in making it all come together, assisting in the activities and guiding participants as they explore their creative ideas. It’s a fun, relaxed environment where everyone can create something special to take home, along with the skills and confidence to recreate these projects at home, making art more accessible for families to continue enjoying together.
Upcoming Family Day Activities:

• February 22 – Exploring Ukrainian traditions
• March 29 – Experimenting with various art techniques and media
• April 26 – Creating prints and paintings

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Thanks to our community of supporters, Family Day continues to bring people together in the spirit of creativity and discovery.

MJ McHugh, Education Director, NDMOA

​January

• You’ve likely already reviewed your year-end activity to determine which donors were most active at year-end, and which of these active donors have already established a planned gift or have otherwise supported your endowment. 
• As you finished up your thank you notes, you very likely ran across at least a handful of donors that seemed ready for deeper engagement. Let’s carry that momentum forward!

February

• Reach out one-by-one to the donors you noted in January as potentially ready for deeper engagement. Messages along the lines of planning for the year ahead and taking advantage of QCDs early in the year will resonate well.
• Begin planning outreach to donors related to upcoming tax time. This is an excellent time to plant seeds with donors because they will be reviewing last year’s financial and tax matters with their advisors. 
• Consider also deploying content that focuses on involving family in supporting your organization, aligning loosely with Valentine’s Day. You can also showcase heartwarming stories of impact.
• Participate in Giving Hearts Day.

March

• Continue your tax-time outreach noted above.
• Be sure to include reminders about the benefits of giving appreciated stock and the charitable deduction in general. This is important because as your donors review their tax return information for 2024, they may notice instances where they could (should!) have given appreciated stock instead of cash. They might also realize that they should have given more to charity than they did. This can help you generate gifts to your annual fund and endowment.

April

• Continue tax time reminders in all of your one-on-one communications. If you’ve promoted tax messages as noted above for March, you can get even more mileage out of the content by forwarding your March communications to donors in real time as you are on the phone with them. Sometimes people miss things in their email inboxes, but you always get a second chance to send it during a phone conversation or even live during a meeting.
• If you send an April communication, consider using “spring cleaning” types of themes about getting organized and planning 2025 charitable gifts to your annual fund and endowment fund. This can help increase donor giving during the first half of the year.      

May

• This is the time of year that donors may be gearing up for some down time during the summer. This is an excellent time to lean into conversations about bequests, IRA beneficiary designations, and other types of planned gifts to your endowment.

June

• With tax time behind them, and the year-end rush still months away, donors and their advisors typically have more bandwidth to dig into discussions about including your organization’s endowment in an estate plan. Just because the pace is slower doesn’t mean the energy takes a hit! This is a great time to catch donors in a more relaxed mode.
• Focus your content on mid-year trends and summer reading ideas to learn about charitable giving.

July

• This is a good time of year to zero in on legislative and tax law updates. By this time in the year, we have a pretty good idea of legislative agendas. Plus, you want donors to start thinking about you for year-end transactions.
• ​Considering signing up for Giving Hearts Day for 2026.

August

• Make a Will Month is a useful time for bequest and estate planning reminders, incorporating charitable planning into a business succession plan, planned giving, and giving while living. Use these themes in your communications.
• Content can touch on not only Make a Will Month, but also forecasting the busy third and fourth quarters. Now is the time for donors to discuss endowment gifts, major gifts, and planned gifts.

September

• This is a really busy time of year, but you should not stop the drumbeat!
• Content can include encouraging donors to start looking at how their giving goals are shaping up for the year. If a donor has expressed intentions to set up a planned gift to your endowment fund, or give to your endowment fund via a Qualified Charitable Distribution, it’s wise to set these transactions in motion now to avoid the year-end rush.

October

• This is a particularly good time for personal outreach to all donors who have given to your endowment fund in the past or expressed interest in doing so. Work your way through the list, touching base personally with each donor.
• Consider planning an outreach campaign to drop off holiday cards, cookies, or other small gifts to your endowment donors and legacy endowment donors.

November

• Focus your communications on reminders about the wide variety of assets that can be given to your endowment fund, and year-end deadlines for specific types of gifts such as checks, QCDs, gifts of publicly-traded stock, credit card gifts, etc.
• Emphasize the tax benefits of giving highly-appreciated stock to your endowment fund, as well as the benefits of naming your endowment fund as the beneficiary of an IRA.
• Get your donors and prospects excited for Giving Tuesday on December 2, 2025.

December

• Participate in Giving Tuesday.
• Be highly responsive to all donor inquiries; same day responsiveness is crucial, and ideally within the first couple of hours.
• Focus your marketing content on the importance of endowment giving and additional year-end tips.                         

Most of your philanthropic clients likely support a wide variety of charities year after year. The causes they support represent a range of motivations, including personal experience, a role as a volunteer or board member, family tradition, or alignment with values and community priorities.

Many of the charitable organizations your clients support are local. That’s important to note because it means that your clients are especially well-positioned to lean into the Community Foundation’s unique position as the hub for charitable giving and local knowledge. Here are three reasons that matters:

• Clients can tap into the team’s knowledge about specific organizations, including financial information, data about the impact of a charity’s programs, and observations of an organization’s areas of greatest need.
• Clients can choose from a variety of fund types depending on what they’d like to achieve. A designated fund, for example, allows your client to set aside tax-deductible dollars that are dedicated to supporting a specific organization. Through the Community Foundation’s services, funds are distributed over time to the charity while the assets remaining in the fund are protected from the charity’s creditors. Another example is an unrestricted fund, which leverages the Community Foundation’s extensive research about the needs of the community and the nonprofit programs that are addressing those needs.
• Clients can work with the Community Foundation to leave a bequest to an endowment fund to support community needs for generations to come. As a perpetual organization, the Community Foundation ensures that charitable giving stays strong in our region to address important needs as they evolve over time.

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Of course, if your client establishes a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation, the fund can support local causes as well as causes across the country. As the hub for your clients’ charitable giving, our tools and our team are dedicated to helping your clients achieve their charitable goals both near and far. Working with the local Community Foundation, no matter what a particular client’s charitable priorities may be, is itself a strong show of support for philanthropy right here in our community. 

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 attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, you are well aware that you have clients’ attention when tax season rolls around. This makes it a great time to cover tax planning strategies for the current year and beyond. To help incorporate charitable giving topics into your tax season client conversations, we’ve put together tips to address three scenarios where the Community Foundation can assist your efforts.

Evaluate QCDs sooner rather than later.
If: Your client missed the 2024 deadline for a Qualified Charitable Distribution.
Then: Make sure the client took an RMD for 2024 (if required to do so). Start planning now for 2025 QCDs, paying very close attention to the required process. QCDs are an excellent tool for your clients who’ve reached the age of 70 ½ to give to a designated, field-of-interest, or unrestricted fund (donor-advised funds are not eligible), but if the client waits until the last minute at year-end, there might not be time for the transaction to be completed by December 31 as required. Plus, QCDs executed early in the year can help avoid negative effects of the "first-dollars-out rule” so that the QCD can count towards your client’s 2025 RMD.

Watch for charitable giving opportunities in business succession planning.
If: Your client is beginning to consider exit strategies for a closely-held business.
Then: Reach out to the Community Foundation right away. Gifts of closely-held stock to a charitable fund can be a very useful component of a business succession plan. That’s because a client can gift shares of the business, which in turn means that no capital gains tax will apply to the gifted portion when the business eventually sells. The proceeds of the gifted shares flow into the fund to be used for your client’s charitable priorities. Keep in mind that timing is crucial; if a deal is in the works at the time the shares are transferred to the charitable fund, the charitable deduction is in jeopardy.

Consider gifts of appreciated stock early in the year.
If: Your client’s stock portfolio made big gains last year.
Then: Evaluate whether it might be wise to make gifts of appreciated stock to a fund at the Community Foundation early in the year, rather than waiting until the end of the year. If certain stock positions are high right now, it’s worth considering whether a gift in the very near future could be a good move to maximize charitable dollars. As a reminder, gifts of stock to a public charity are eligible for a charitable deduction in the amount of the stock’s fair market value at the time of transfer. And, when the stock is sold so that its proceeds can be deployed to further your client’s charitable goals, no capital gains tax will apply.
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Our goal is to be your go-to sounding board for any client situation where charitable giving is an option. Please reach out anytime you and a client are discussing philanthropy. In most cases, the Community Foundation can help. Even if our tools are not a fit, we will point you in the right direction!

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 consider your 2025 giving priorities, you’ll no doubt recall that writing a check to favorite charities is not the only way to support the causes you love. But sometimes it seems easiest to reach for the checkbook because it’s overwhelming to think about all the options.

You might be experiencing what’s known as the “paradox of choice,” a phenomenon where an abundance of options actually decreases your satisfaction and diminishes your decision-making ability. Too many choices can cause decision fatigue, anxiety, and regret over potentially missed opportunities.

We understand! The team at the Community Foundation is here for you. We’ll help you evaluate potential assets that would make great gifts to your donor-advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation, including:

• Gifts of publicly-traded stock, allowing you to potentially avoid capital gains tax
• Giving shares of closely-held business interests to your fund as part of a long-term business succession plan
• Gifts of real estate, including farmland or commercial property, allowing you to potentially avoid capital gains tax and reduce the value of your taxable estate if future estate taxes are a concern
• Beneficiary designations on retirement plans, and even “Qualified Charitable Distributions” from your IRA to a designated or field-of-interest fund if you are over the age of 70 ½
• Naming your fund at the Community Foundation as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, or even transferring a whole life policy and making annual tax-deductible contributions to the Community Foundation to cover the premium
• Gifts of oil and gas interests, cryptocurrency, and collectibles are also possibilities for adding to your fund at the Community Foundation

The bottom line here is that our team can help you work through the possibilities. We’ll make sure that the daunting range of options doesn’t prevent you from making the best decisions to achieve both your financial planning and charitable giving goals.
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​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.

A Qualified Charitable Distribution (“QCD”) is a useful tool if you’ve reached the age of 70 ½ and want to give to a designated, field-of-interest, or unrestricted fund at the Community Foundation. Indeed, in 2025, you can direct up to $108,000 from your IRA to many types of funds at the Community Foundation, although donor-advised funds are not eligible.
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But what if you intended to make a QCD in 2024 and time got away from you? Perhaps you even initiated a QCD on December 31, but it was too late to qualify for 2024 because of the way these transactions are settled between administrators and recipients. This is a complex topic for sure, and you’ll want to discuss the details with your tax advisors. At a high-level, here are a few considerations if you missed the opportunity last year.

First and foremost, ensure you have taken your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) for 2024 if you are required to do so. Failing to take your RMD can result in significant penalties, so this should be your top priority. If you missed your RMD deadline because you were planning to make a QCD, you should file IRS Form 5329 and request a waiver.

While you can't retroactively make a QCD for the previous year, you can get a jump on 2025. Indeed, there are lots of reasons to make your QCDs early in the year. For example, it’s smart to try to avoid potential conflicts with the "first-dollars-out rule,” meaning that the first dollars withdrawn from an IRA will count toward your RMD. QCDs early in the year help ensure that it will count toward your RMD before taking any other distributions that might be taxable. And of course, avoiding the year-end rush is imperative.

The Community Foundation team is always happy to work with you and your advisors to help you carry out your charitable giving goals, whether you’re exploring a QCD or any of the many ways you can support the causes you love. We look forward to working with you this year!

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.

​A new year is in full swing, but you’ve still got plenty of time to consider your charitable impact and how you’d like to make a difference in 2025. A great way to do that is to reflect on the difference you’ve already made through the years.

For starters, think about how the many causes you’ve supported have resulted in tangible, positive improvements in the quality of life for so many people in our region. Indeed, many people are drawn to charitable giving and decide to establish a fund at the Community Foundation because of personal experiences with charities during a time of need. For example, perhaps a loved one benefited from groundbreaking medical research funded by charitable donations. Or maybe you or a family member overcame personal challenges with the help of nonprofit counseling services, or your business might have thrived thanks to a nonprofit-supported arts district or mentorship program. Nonprofit hospice care may have provided comfort and support during a difficult time with a family member. Even a cherished pet may have come into your life through a nonprofit animal rescue. What’s more, many people find that their happiness increases through acts of giving. When you know you’re helping someone, it makes you feel good!

The team at the Community Foundation is here to help you shape your charitable giving plan for 2025 and beyond. We’d welcome a conversation to review key components of your philanthropy and help you make the biggest impact possible. For example, we can review:

• Opportunities to accomplish your charitable giving goals this year through gifts of appreciated stock
• Opportunities to incorporate gifts to your fund in your estate plan and create a lasting  charitable legacy
• Examples of how you can join forces with other fund holders to support larger initiatives
• Examples of donors who are not only pursuing their own charitable priorities, but are also supporting the Community Foundation’s work to improve quality of life in our region for generations to come
• Reviewing historical grants to charities from your donor-advised fund and examples of the impact of those grants, which in turn can help inform future grant making to the causes you love
• Ways your grants and the charities you support are helping achieve positive community change in priorities identified as critical by the Community Foundation

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If you'd like to discuss your giving strategies or explore new ways to maximize your impact, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to help you achieve your philanthropic goals and create lasting change in our community.

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.