Giving together: Factors to consider when representing couples
The community foundation can help as you work with a couple to design a charitable giving plan that will create rewarding philanthropic experiences for both partners. Indeed, in Giving as a Couple, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors reinforces the tenets we maintain as a team at the community foundation when we are working with a couple to develop and activate a charitable giving strategy that matches the couple’s goals and values.
For example:
Our team strives to understand why your clients want to give together as a couple, rather than “dividing and conquering” as individuals.
Our team seeks to deeply understand your clients’ perspectives on roles and control so that we can help structure a process that will allow both partners to be active decision-makers. In certain cases, from time to time, a couple will ask the community foundation to act as a mediator, or even a tiebreaker, in the event that the partners are in the midst of an amicable debate about a particular community impact strategy or charitable gift.
Our team helps couples decide on financial levels of current and legacy giving that will achieve the couple’s philanthropic goals in harmony with their goals for children and grandchildren’s personal inheritances and involvement in the family’s legacy philanthropy.
Especially if you are representing couples that include women, it’s worth checking out Women Give 2021: How Households Make Giving Decisions, a study released last month by Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The authors of the study observed notable trends in how partners--not just women--approach giving. For example, according to the report:
More than 61% of couples make charitable giving decisions jointly.
When decisions are made by one member of a couple, and that couple includes one woman, the woman is more likely to be that decision maker.
Couples tend to agree on the amount and recipients of their philanthropic investments.
As always, the team at the community foundation looks forward to supporting you as you help your clients achieve their family philanthropy goals.
In sync on giving: Lawmakers from both parties support expansion of CARES Act deduction
Four Republican Senators, four Republican Democrats, a House Democrat, and a House Republican have introduced legislation to expand the increased charitable deduction cap for non-itemizers to up to one-third of the standard deduction. The Universal Giving Pandemic Response and Recovery Act (S.618/H.R.1704) also extends this temporary $300 deduction, which was included in the original CARES Act, through 2022 and enhances the provision to include gifts to donor-advised funds.
Preliminary reports suggest that the so-called “universal charitable deduction” is already showing signs of success in encouraging more people to give to charitable organizations. For example, AFP’s Fundraising Effectiveness Project reports a 28% increase of $300 gifts made on December 31, 2020. Considering that $300 is the precise amount of the maximum a non-itemizer can deduct, this does not seem to be a coincidence! AFP also reports that gifts of $250 or less increased by more than 15% in 2020 compared with 2019.
The inclusion of donor-advised funds as qualified recipients of universal charitable giving is an important breakthrough and recognition that donor-advised fund vehicles are powerful tools to increase effective charitable giving. Especially when paired with the expertise and resources uniquely available through the community foundation, a donor-advised fund can be a critically important component of the philanthropic strategy for an individual, family, or business.
April showers: Puddles to avoid as you navigate tax deadline extensions
Your clients most certainly are aware that the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have extended the federal income tax filing and payment deadline for the 2020 tax year from April 15, 2021 to May 17, 2021. Be aware, however, that clients might overlook the fact that this extension applies only to individual taxpayers. And although the May 17, 2021 deadline does apply to individuals who pay self-employment tax, it does not apply to estimated tax payments (still due on April 15) or withholding. The extension also does not apply to nonprofits and business entities, so it’s business as usual on April 15 for entities filing Forms 1120 and 990. In addition, individuals still must comply with state filing deadlines, to which an extension may or may not apply.