Hello from the community foundation!
Before we share the latest news and updates, we’d like to offer two observations:
First, it is our honor to work with so many families and businesses to structure and implement your charitable giving plans. What’s perhaps most rewarding to the team at the community foundation is the overwhelming sentiment among our donors that no matter what happens with the tax laws over the years, you are committed to making a difference by supporting the causes you love. Although tax benefits of charitable giving ebb and flow, your support for our community and the charities you love remains steadfast. Your generosity continues to improve the quality of life for everyone who lives here. Thank you!
Second, August is National Make-A-Will month, which means it’s the perfect time–before the fall gets busy–to review your estate plans with your attorney and our team at the community foundation to ensure your philanthropic intentions are up to date. Even a quick check-in now can maximize the impact of your legacy and help ensure that your wishes are clearly carried out to support the causes you care about for generations to come.
Now, let’s get to it! Here’s what’s trending at the community foundation:
–2025 is shaping up to be an important year for charitable giving from a tax planning perspective. That’s because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, includes several provisions taking effect this year and next year that could influence the timing and structure of your donations. Learn how the community foundation can work with you and your advisors to navigate these opportunities.
–Back to school is upon us, and this means education is on the minds of many. If you’ve established a scholarship fund at the community foundation, or if you’re considering it, please reach out to the community foundation team. We can help structure charitable support for students’ education in ways that go well beyond scholarships to help support academic and personal success.
–If you are a business owner, the concept of succession planning is nothing new. But succession planning isn’t just for business owners–it’s also important for leaving a charitable legacy. The team at the community foundation can help capture your intentions, and we make it easy to involve your family members so that the causes you care about are supported for generations to come.
Thanks so much for all you do for our community. We look forward to talking with you soon about how you can deepen your involvement with your favorite charities. Our team is here to help.
–Your community foundation
THIS MONTH’S
TRENDING TOPICS
Navigating new laws: Opportunities for 2025
It’s more important than ever to stay informed about how changes in the tax law may affect your charitable giving. The recently-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) creates challenges as well as opportunities for structuring your philanthropy. We encourage you to reach out to your attorney, CPA, and financial advisor to evaluate how the changes in the law impact your own situation.
As always, the community foundation is happy to work side-by-side with you and your tax advisors to build a plan for 2025 and beyond that not only supports your plans to make a difference in the community, but also addresses the rule changes under the OBBBA.
To help you along this journey, we’ve provided the checklist below of issues to discuss with your advisors.
Evaluate whether “bunching” may be right for you.
The OBBBA increases the 2025 standard deduction to $15,750 for single filers and $31,500 for married couples filing jointly. The higher standard deduction will likely impact tax-motivated charitable giving, even with the expected uptick in the number of itemizers thanks to the OBBBA’s state and local tax deduction allowances (subscriptions required to the Wall Street Journal). There are important exceptions and nuances to consider, which you’ll want to discuss with your advisors. For example, if you are 65 or older, you’re eligible to receive an additional $6,000 “bonus” deduction—but it begins to phase out if your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds $75,000.
Based on the increases to the standard deduction, you may want to talk with your tax advisors about “bunching” charitable gifts for 2025 using a donor-advised fund at the community foundation. Through this technique, you can make several years’ worth of charitable contributions in a single year to exceed the standard deduction threshold, thereby maximizing tax benefits in that year. Over the following years, your donor-advised fund can distribute grants to charities over time according to your wishes.
Here are more reasons you might want to talk with your advisors about front-loading charitable contributions in 2025: In 2026, a new provision under the OBBBA takes effect that allows you to take a deduction for charitable gifts only to the extent that your giving exceeds 0.5% of your AGI. What’s more, if you’re in the highest tax bracket–37%--you can still only deduct charitable contributions at the 35% rate.
The upshot here is that you and your tax advisors may decide that 2025 is the year to bunch charitable contributions to maximize tax savings.
Get familiar with the deduction for non-itemizers, coming next year.
If you don’t itemize your deductions, you’ll be glad to know that starting in the 2026 tax year you can claim a deduction for cash gifts to qualifying public charities—up to $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. Excluded from this new provision are gifts to donor‑advised funds and non‑cash gifts, which is unfortunate because those vehicles are popular, convenient, and tax-effective. Still, keep in mind the new deduction, and, if you’re encouraging your adult children to get involved in philanthropy, make sure they are aware of this deduction. It could be particularly helpful for young people because many young people do not yet itemize.
If you are over 70 ½, review the benefits of Qualified Charitable Distributions.
A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) enables individuals aged 70 ½ or older to donate up to $108,000 per year (as of 2025) directly from an IRA to eligible charities, and in the process exclude the donated amount from taxable income altogether–rather than relying on an itemized deduction. QCDs may be especially advantageous after the OBBBA’s significant increase to the standard deduction because QCDs provide a direct tax benefit regardless of whether you itemize or take the standard deduction. Indeed, using a QCD to fulfill required minimum distributions (RMDs) can lower your adjusted gross income, potentially reducing taxes on Social Security income and Medicare surtaxes, and helping you sidestep the new floors and caps on itemized charitable deductions imposed by the OBBBA starting in 2026.
The community foundation is happy to collaborate with you and your tax advisor as you explore ways to achieve your philanthropic goals under the new laws. We look forward to hearing from you!
Back to school: Expanding support for education
It’s time for back-to-school planning! If education is on your mind, you’re in good company. Charitable giving to education rose in 2024 to more than $58 billion! If education and related causes are important to you, the community foundation can help you explore a variety of meaningful ways to make an impact. Here are three ideas to inspire a deeper discussion:
Explore options for expanding student support
In many cases, donors set up a scholarship or other type of fund to support a particular educational institution, and then set it on autopilot. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but you might be missing an opportunity to make a deeper impact. The community foundation team is happy to facilitate a dialogue with you and the school to structure your funding–whether through a scholarship or other types of support–to fill gaps in student need. For example, if you’d like to support students pursuing a college degree beyond simply scholarship dollars, the community foundation can help identify needs for dollars to increase faculty salaries, purchase lab equipment, or pay an on-campus counselor to help students acclimate to college life.
Investigate opportunities to improve the quality of education itself
Many donors are concerned that high school graduates are ill-prepared for post-secondary education, whether that’s a traditional four-year college, community college, or trade school. The community foundation can help you address this gap with your charitable dollars. For example, you could establish a fund to support teachers, which in turn helps improve student success. Indeed, teachers are often considered the single most important in-school factor for student success. Charitable funding that enhances teacher training, mentorship, and ongoing professional development creates ripple effects across classrooms and generations of students.
Find your education “niche”
By establishing a field-of-interest fund at the community foundation, you can work with the community foundation team to identify specific parameters within education that you’d like to fund. For example, you may be interested in supporting local grassroots programs offering tutoring and mentorship. Or, you may decide to direct your charitable dollars to quality early childhood programs, which have been shown to yield high returns on investments in education. The community foundation can help you identify an area of focus. Going forward, our team leverages the community foundation’s deep knowledge and research to identify high-impact opportunities, helping to ensure your generosity makes the greatest difference within your area of interest.
Please reach out to our team anytime! As students head back to school and education is top of mind, the community foundation is here to make sure your giving is impactful, focused, and in line with your philanthropic goals.
Succession planning: It’s not just for businesses
Many people think of succession planning as something only relevant to businesses or nonprofits. However, it's equally important when considering the legacy you want to leave through philanthropy—including being intentional about what happens to your donor-advised fund at the community foundation after you're gone. The community foundation team can help structure provisions for your donor-advised fund to engage your family, tap the community foundation’s expertise, or a combination of both so that your donor-advised fund can become a multi-generational legacy that reflects your values.
Here are three considerations as you consider your “charitable succession plan”:
Leave a legacy
One of the most powerful ways to extend your impact is by leaving a portion of your estate to charity—such as by naming your donor-advised fund as a beneficiary of an IRA or other retirement account. This strategy delivers considerable tax advantages and enables your philanthropic dollars to be thoughtfully distributed in accordance with your values. Remember, IRAs left to the community foundation avoid not only the income tax that would hit your heirs, but also removes the assets from your taxable estate for estate tax purposes.
Lean on the community foundation
The community foundation is honored to serve as a trusted partner for many individuals and families. Our team can work with you and your advisors to enlist the community foundation’s expertise to make grants from your donor-advised fund according to your values and charitable intentions following your death. We can also work with you and your advisors to incorporate the ability for your children and grandchildren to serve as advisors to the donor-advised fund following your death, including taking advantage of the community foundation’s educational programs to help your children and grandchildren learn how to be effective philanthropists.
Capture your intentions
The community foundation team is happy to work with you to document and formalize your charitable wishes. We’ll help you articulate your priorities and outline how you envision your fund making a difference across generations, whether that means supporting specific organizations, issue areas, urgent community needs, or a combination of priorities. By helping you capture your intentions in writing and then following your wishes, the community foundation acts as a steward to safeguard your philanthropic goals and help ensure that the causes you care about continue to receive support for years to come.
We look forward to talking about succession planning for your donor-advised fund. The community foundation is honored to help you secure your charitable legacy and involve your loved ones in meaningful giving. Thank you for the opportunity!
The team at the community foundation is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. This newsletter 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.