Hello from the community foundation!
We hope this note finds you well. In our community and across the country, concerns about rising inflation, worries about more frequent natural disasters, and fears of a lingering bear market are weighing heavily on everyone.
In this issue, we’re covering topics in three broad areas–altruism, finances, and community–in the context of a somewhat harrowing start to the fourth quarter. Our priority at the community foundation is to help keep philanthropy strong in our region so that our citizens and our nonprofit organizations can weather the storms now and for years to come.
If you are already a fundholder at the community foundation, thank you! We hope you’ll continue to reach out to our team with questions and ideas about how you can deploy financial resources to achieve your charitable goals. If you’ve not yet established your own individual, family, or corporate fund at the community foundation, we encourage you to reach out to learn more. This is a perfect time to take advantage of the tax benefits of charitable giving while at the same time engage your family in making a real and immediate difference in the lives of people in our community who need assistance.
Thank you for all you do. We are honored to work together and wish you the best.
–Your community foundation
High-profile acts of altruism are inspiring philanthropists large and small
We often hear from some of our largest fundholders that one of the reasons they love working with the community foundation is because the foundation is truly the community’s foundation. Whether a family has established a multi-million dollar field-of-interest fund or a donor-advised fund to organize thousands of dollars of annual charitable gifts, the family knows that they have full access to the community foundation’s charitable giving expertise and deep knowledge of the needs in our region.
This is part of the reason our team and our donors find it so heartwarming to see a focus on altruism appear in the mainstream media. When people from all walks of life can share in the joy of philanthropy, everyone wins.
Here are three stories we’ve particularly enjoyed that are worth checking out if you happened to miss them.
–Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, and his family have just given their ownership of the company to charity by establishing a group of trusts and nonprofits. Chouniard’s inspiring act of philanthropy is reminiscent of the work of Chuck Feeney, founder of Atlantic, who was “driven by a belief that the best use of one's wealth is to help people.” Business leaders aren’t the only people who are increasingly publicizing their charitable giving commitments. More celebrities are sharing their stories of charitable passion, too.
–Keeping with the celebrity giving theme, we enjoyed reading this heartwarming piece comparing philanthropy to Ted Lasso. Playing the long game, listening, focusing on relationships, and staying humble and flexible indeed are important tenets of building a charitable giving plan.
–If you are interested in exploring the philosophical dynamics and roots of altruism, we recommend checking out a Time interview and a feature in Vox. And of course, Peter Singer’s 2013 TED talk is an altruism classic.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on these and other stories as philanthropy pops up in your news feed. The community foundation is here to answer your questions and provide the tools you need to activate your charitable intentions in a concrete, meaningful, and tax-savvy way.
Bright spots in the midst of economic challenges
Bear markets aren’t much fun for anyone. But that doesn’t mean your charitable giving commitments have to be put on hold. If you are like many donors, you are still looking for ways to support the organizations you care about that rely on your support to achieve their missions.
Remember, not every stock is down. It’s still incredibly tax-efficient to donate highly-appreciated stock to your fund at the community foundation. When you give appreciated stock held for more than one year (a long-term capital asset) to your donor-advised or other type of fund, instead of selling it outright, the capital gains tax is avoided. Plus, marketable securities are typically deductible at their fair market value, further helping your overall income tax situation.
Don’t forget about the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), either. If you’ve reached the age of 70 ½, the QCD is an elegant and effective planning tool. You are still required to take Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from your IRA even in a down market, and the QCD can help offset this tax hit by allowing you to direct up to $100,000 to a qualified public charity, including a field-of-interest fund or unrestricted fund at the community foundation.
This is also a good time to make sure your estate plan is in good shape, including bequests you may wish to leave to a fund at the community foundation so that the causes you care about can continue to be supported for generations to come. A bequest by way of a qualified retirement plan beneficiary designation is an especially effective tool to support your charitable intentions after you are gone. That’s because funds flowing directly to a fund at the community foundation from a retirement plan after your death will not be subject to either income tax or estate tax.
Please reach out to the team at the community foundation. We are here to help!
Activate immediate and effective assistance for people in need
When a major earthquake occurred 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, more than a decade ago, it was hard to imagine the new era of philanthropy this disaster would usher in. According to many, the 2010 Haiti earthquake was the first time social networks played a major role in philanthropy. At the time, analysts at the Pew Research Center who studied the phenomenon described the “Text to Haiti” effect as “a new mode of engagement” that “offers opportunities to philanthropies and charitable groups for reaching new donors under new circumstances as messages spread virally through friend networks.”
In recent years, you and other donors have become accustomed to making charitable donations to support disaster relief, whether through text, online, writing checks, or giving gifts in kind. While it is sad that these donations are needed in the first place, it is good to know that individual donations provide critical resources to help communities recover from the many disasters–weather, fire, humanitarian, disease, war–that occur each year.
In the wake of Hurricane Ian, please reach out to us about your options for giving aid and financial support to those most affected by the storm. We can provide you options for giving that are trustworthy and effective, including leveraging our connections with fellow community foundations that are closest to the geographic areas affected. Community foundations are widely viewed as one of the very best vehicles to help you and other donors provide financial support to relief efforts. We’d be honored to help you play a role in speeding recovery from the tragic storms.