Join us at NOON the First Friday of each Month during 2025 for “Foundation Connection.”
Each month we will host these zoom meetings on a variety of topics. The January 3rd topic will be about the Scholarship and Grants Calendars. This is a time for Q & A about Scholarships and Grants so please join us to learn more about these cycles!
February 7th’s topic will be on Spendable Balances.
Imagine the future. Your community foundation helps bring your charitable goals to life.
Happy New Year from the community foundation!
We hope your 2025 is off to a good start already.
Many of you have been fund holders or fund advisors at the community foundation for years, and we are grateful. Some of you established a donor-advised fund, field-of-interest fund, scholarship fund, or unrestricted fund in 2024, and we’re so glad you did. Others of you are evaluating whether to start a fund at the community foundation in 2025. Wherever you may be along your charitable giving journey, we invite you to reach out anytime.
Here’s what’s trending here at the community foundation.
–A new year can bring new opportunities for community involvement, including introductions to charities you’ve not yet supported. Whether you’ve been approached to support a friend’s favorite charity or have just learned about a brand new organization, think of the community foundation team as your go-to sounding board for due diligence.
–A budget may not be the very first thing that comes to mind when you think about ringing in a new year, but budgets are important, even when it comes to charitable giving. The community foundation is happy to offer tips to help you plan your philanthropy goals for 2025 to align with your financial priorities.
–Charitable giving is a powerful thread that runs through multiple generations of many philanthropic families. The team at the community foundation can help incorporate charitable giving into your legacy plans to achieve not only your goals for community impact, but also your intentions to empower financial independence in your children and grandchildren.
We look forward to working with you in the months ahead!
With gratitude,
Angie Tatro,
CKCF CEO
Doing your due diligenceYou’re ready to roll into a new year, and that includes staying involved with the charities you love, whether as a donor, volunteer, board member, or all of the above.
The team at the community foundation is here to support your charitable endeavors, no matter where your passions lie. Our region is full of charitable organizations that are doing amazing work to improve the quality of life for everyone. Indeed, across the country, there are hundreds of thousands of charities making a difference every single day.
Occasionally, you may be asked by a friend or colleague to donate to a charity you’re not too familiar with, or perhaps a charity that’s not been around very long asks you for financial support. Please reach out to our team with your questions. We are happy to help you gather the information you need to be confident in your gifts to any organization, large or small, new or well-established.
The overwhelming majority of charities are above board, ethical, governed by top-notch board members, and run by highly-qualified professionals. Unfortunately, though, every once in a rare while, there are instances when a charity might not dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. Although very infrequent, it’s still worth considering leaning on the community foundation to help you with due diligence for a few reasons:
–You’ll want to protect your reputation against damage if you were to wind up supporting a charity that later becomes tainted by a scandal.
–You’ll want to validate that the charity is not facing significant or unusual legal or financial risks.
–You’ll want to avoid scams, which, unfortunately, are on the rise.
A big perk of organizing your giving through a fund at the community foundation is that our team always has its finger on the pulse of what’s going on with charitable organizations in our community. We can research the status of longstanding organizations, check into a brand new organization, and everything in between. Our goal is to help ensure that your charitable contributions have the greatest possible impact. We look forward to hearing from you!
Budgeting has its benefits, even with charitable givingYour family may be among those who are taking their charitable giving budgets more seriously this year, given uncertainty surrounding interest rates, potential new legislation, and possible stock market swings.
At the same time, you also know that our community’s needs continue to rise. As 2025 gets into full swing, your favorite charities will be relying on additional resources and support from philanthropic sources.
Against this backdrop, a budget has benefits!
Here are a few steps to consider as you build a 2025 budget for charitable donations that can help you continue to support your favorite causes and remain fiscally cautious.
–Review all your charitable donations from the last three years and compile totals for each organization. This can be an easy exercise if you use a donor-advised fund at the community foundation because the data can typically be pulled directly from the community foundation’s donor portal or requested from the community foundation’s team.
–Carefully review the list of organizations you’ve supported over the last three years. Regardless of your donation levels, which charities are the most important to you? Are you serving on the board of directors of any of these organizations? Do you regularly volunteer at any of them? Is there a personal connection?
–Are there any organizations on your list that you supported primarily because the organization was raising money for a capital campaign, or because you were helping out a friend who is involved with that organization? If you anticipate household budget constraints in 2025, these may be organizations to possibly put on hold and then revisit supporting again in future years.
–Add up your total giving over the last three years and then divide it by three to get your average. Is that number doable this year? If not, reduce it to a level that fits within your financial situation to arrive at your tentative 2025 giving budget. Or, if you expect your income and assets to increase this year, consider taking your charitable giving budget up a notch. And always remember that there are tax advantages to giving highly-appreciated publicly-traded stock to your fund at the community foundation.
–Consider whether to keep certain organizations at historic levels of giving, such as those you’re personally involved with. Or on the flip side, you may decide to temporarily reduce your level of giving to organizations for which you are providing other types of support, including volunteering or board service.
–Review your list to see if there are any organizations you’ve supported that you’d like to learn more about. The team at the community foundation is extremely knowledgeable about charities in our region and would be happy to provide information on how a particular organization spends its money and how it measures impact.
–Finally, do the best you can to set targets for the amount of support you’d like to provide to each organization—and perhaps even set targets for the timing of your gifts. You can change these targets at any time, of course. The point here is that the planning and budgeting process is a great way to create more intentionality around your giving. Intentional giving is not only more rewarding for you, but it is also likely to increase your level of engagement with the recipient charities and enhance your understanding of how dollars are being deployed to meet the mission. This, in turn, helps your favorite organizations get better at carrying out their programs and serving those who rely on their work.
We look forward to working with you throughout the year!
It’s a family thingIf you’ve not yet involved your children or grandchildren in your charitable giving, this may be the year to consider it! Children of all ages can benefit from learning even just a little bit about philanthropy and how charities improve the quality of life for everyone. Indeed, many parents and grandparents believe that some level of community involvement is crucial for young family members’ personal growth and future contributions to a more compassionate society.
The team at the community foundation is always happy to help you explore best practices for helping shape the young people in your life into caring, responsible adults and inspire your extended family to get more involved.
Increasing a family’s role in charitable giving often leads to broader questions about estate planning, such as:
–How to structure legacies to favorite charities so that heirs can stay involved in your priorities across generations
–How to ensure that children and grandchildren will be financially secure but still motivated to pursue independent personal and professional growth
–How to foster and support the self-directed charitable passions of children and grandchildren
The team at the community foundation is happy to work alongside your tax and estate planning advisors to address questions like this. We understand that you may be concerned that leaving millions of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands, to your children could backfire and hinder your kids’ ability and motivation to achieve financial independence. You might even be among the growing number of baby boomers who are considering pushing out distribution dates of inheritances and gifts.
In addition to concerns about fostering entitlement and dependency, many parents and grandparents are concerned that their children will miss out on the satisfaction of knowing they built wealth on their own. These parents believe that the challenges and struggles along the way will ultimately enrich their children’s lives with intangible benefits that are far greater than the obvious benefits that come with gifts or an inheritance of significant financial resources.
If you find yourself feeling this way, please reach out to the community foundation. Every day, our team works with families who are in this exact situation. We’ll help you evaluate strategies such as:
–Establishing philanthropic components of an estate plan so that children receive only the amount that can pass to them free of estate tax, with the rest passing to a charity, such as a donor-advised fund at the community foundation.
–Setting up a fund at the community foundation to allow you to support favorite causes and charities during your lifetime; if the fund is a donor-advised fund, you can provide that your children step in as successor advisors following your death.
–As successor advisors to the donor-advised fund, your children can work with the community foundation to recommend grants to favorite charities, support interest areas you’ve pre-selected, or both.
Many people are attracted to this type of structure because not only could it avoid estate tax, but it also allows their children to stay involved with all of the family’s wealth, work together and keep sibling bonds strong, and get involved in the community.
Please reach out to the community foundation team anytime. We look forward to exploring strategies to help you meet your financial and tax goals, as well as honor your wishes for your children to live happy and productive lives.
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.
During December, contributions made to qualifying CKCF funds during this month-long PFF Match event will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $70,000. The match will be allocated with up to 60% following the donation and 40% will support CKCF’s operating fund.
Donations can be mailed, dropped by the CKCF Office, or given online. Click the link below for a list of CKCF Funds. Thank you for your generosity!
The tax road ahead, doing good in retirement, and life insurance as a charitable giving toolGreetings from the community foundation!
It is our honor to work with you to achieve your charitable giving goals. The team at the community foundation enjoys every minute of helping individuals, families, and businesses support the community causes that mean the most to you. If you’ve not yet established a fund at the community foundation but are considering doing so, we look forward to helping you explore the various options.
As your home for charitable giving, the community foundation keeps you informed of the latest developments in philanthropy. Notably, three topics are emerging as particularly important to you and other donors and fund holders:
–It can be daunting to wrap your head around all of the potential changes (or lack of changes) that may occur in the Federal tax laws as we emerge from election season and into a new administration. The community foundation is here as a sounding board to help evaluate the planning techniques that might be most useful as you build your charitable strategy, including tools like charitable lead trusts, “bunching” your donations, and using your IRA for charitable giving.
–As people approach retirement, they’re often wondering whether and how to get more involved in the community. The community foundation is happy to help you build a roadmap for your charitable giving, ranging from getting your family involved to deploying tax-savvy strategies. You might be amazed at how much “doing good” you can weave into your golden years!
–Life insurance is a popular and important financial planning tool. In some cases, life insurance can even be an excellent tool to support your charitable giving. The community foundation is happy to work with you and your advisors to explore how you might use your life insurance policies to further your philanthropic goals.
Thank you for the opportunity to work together! Wishing you all the best for the holidays.
With gratitude,
Angie Tatro,
CKCF CEO
Charitable tax tips for the road aheadNo doubt you are reading plenty about potential tax planning strategies in an uncertain post-election environment. Now is a great time to lean on the team at the community foundation as you work with your attorney, CPA, and financial advisor to determine whether and how to update your estate and tax plan. Here are three examples of the wide range of charitable planning topics we’d be glad to discuss with you and your advisors as you look into the future:
Time for a charitable lead trust? The team at the community foundation can help you and your advisors evaluate whether a potential continuation of low interest rates might mean that a charitable lead trust would be a good fit for you. Through a charitable lead trust, you can arrange for an income stream to flow into your fund at the community foundation while future asset appreciation passes to your heirs, minimizing tax consequences. You can also use a charitable lead trust to take advantage of the presently high estate tax exemption, especially in light of uncertainty as to whether it will continue past the end of 2025.
Bunching your charitable gifts. Right now, the standard deduction is still high. It’s a good reason to consider making a gift to a fund at the community foundation this calendar year that allows you to itemize your deductions. If you give appreciated stock to your donor-advised fund, for example, you can not only avoid capital gains tax, but also use a large gift this year to support your favorite charities now and for years to come.
Use your IRAs for charitable giving. Even with all the question marks, it is reasonably safe to suspect that IRAs will remain excellent tools for charitable giving. If you are over the age of 70 ½, absolutely get in touch with the community foundation team to arrange for a tax-savvy Qualified Charitable Distribution of up to $105,000 (increasing to $108,000 in 2025) to a designated, field-of-interest, or unrestricted fund at the community foundation. And, regardless of your age, it is worth considering naming your fund at the community foundation as the beneficiary of your IRA or other qualified plan because not only is estate tax avoided, but your fund won’t trigger the income tax that would apply if IRA proceeds flowed to your heirs.
The net-net here is that we encourage you to reach out! The team at the community foundation is here to help you support your favorite causes. It is our honor to serve as your home for charitable giving.
Doubling down: More good in your retirement years If you’ve reached or are nearing retirement age, you may be evaluating how charitable giving fits into your life in a bigger way than it did during your working years. If you’ve found that you have more time, more money, or both, now that work and raising children are in the rear view mirror, be sure you’re familiar with the various charitable giving techniques that are most appealing to retirees and the various ways the community foundation can help.
Here are four signals that it may be time to update your philanthropy strategies with the help of the community foundation team:
–You’re feeling more connected to local issues. Retirees often feel a greater connection to their community and favorite charities than people who are not retired. Whether it’s because annual income and corresponding giving capacity are more predictable, or because you have more time, getting involved with favorite charities can help you stay active and even avoid loneliness. The team at the community foundation stays in close contact with the many nonprofit organizations in our region, and we are happy to serve as a sounding board as you ramp up your involvement.
–You may be less likely to itemize deductions. Many retirees apply the standard deduction on their income tax returns because they don’t have many expenses that qualify for itemization, such as business expenses and mortgage interest deductions. Now is a good time to evaluate with your tax advisor whether itemizing deductions in certain years could be beneficial. Through your fund at the community foundation, you may be able to concentrate charitable contributions to your donor-advised fund in particular tax years to trigger itemized deductions. This is called “bunching,” and a donor-advised fund, for example, can help you take advantage of itemizing tax deductions while still allowing you to provide steady support to nonprofits out of that fund in years that follow the itemizing year.
–You are more interested in involving your children and grandchildren in your philanthropy. The community foundation is happy to help you fulfill your desire to stay connected with children and grandchildren, including formalizing roles for family members as advisors and successor advisors of your donor-advised fund at the community foundation, or involving younger family members in site visits and other educational programs. The community foundation offers many ways to structure philanthropic priorities for generational wealth as well as create positive, authentic communication channels across an extended family.
–You are ready to start making Qualified Charitable Distributions. If you are at least age 70 ½, you can direct a tax-free distribution (up to $105,000 per spouse in 2024 and $108,000 in 2025) from an IRA to a qualified charity such as a field-of-interest or designated fund at the community foundation. If you must take Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is especially beneficial. This is because the distribution to charity counts toward RMDs and therefore never lands in your taxable income.
If these ideas capture your attention, please reach out! The community foundation is here to help you make the most of your giving, no matter what causes you choose to support. We look forward to collaborating to make your retirement years fulfilling and rewarding for you and the people–and community–you love.
Gifts of life insurance: Securing your charitable future You’re likely well aware of the important role life insurance can play in your estate and financial plans. Indeed, more than half of GenX and Baby Boomers hold life insurance policies, and annual payouts from these policies total nearly $800 billion! What you might not know, though, is that life insurance can be a very effective charitable giving tool under certain circumstances, offering a unique opportunity to support causes you care about as you work with the community foundation to carry out your charitable objectives.
Consider the following strategies:
Beneficiary designation. It’s easy to name your fund at the community foundation as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy. Although IRAs and other qualified retirement plans are frequently more tax-effective for charitable giving, life insurance is sometimes a viable and flexible option for a charitably-minded individual who wants to leave an estate gift that can fund favorite causes for many years into the future.
Estate tax planning. “Second-to-die” life insurance policies, which may become more popular if the estate tax exemption decreases after 2025, can be used to hedge against anticipated estate taxes, thereby allowing you to provide well for family members and still have plenty in your estate to satisfy a bequest to a charity, such as your fund at the community foundation.
Boost your charitable capacity. Increasing coverage on an existing policy can be a cost-efficient way to include charitable giving in your estate plan. For example, if you have a million-dollar policy intended for four family members, adding $250,000 in coverage typically won’t increase premiums by 25%. This allows you to include a fund at the community foundation as a fifth beneficiary, each receiving an equal share.
Repurposing term insurance. The U.S. life insurance market is growing rapidly, expected to reach more than $4 trillion by 2033–and a lot of it is term insurance. If you’ve outlived the initial need for your term policy (such as covering college expenses or a mortgage), consider continuing the policy for charitable purposes. Past premiums can be viewed as sunk costs, while future premiums become a moderate “investment” relative to the potential charitable impact.
Please reach out to the community foundation to discuss how you can use your life insurance to support your charitable priorities. Whether through a beneficiary designation, together with perhaps even a potentially tax-deductible transfer of the policy itself or ongoing dollars to pay the annual premium, we can work with you to navigate the options! The community foundation team is here to help you create a lasting legacy that supports the causes you care about most, especially while optimizing your estate planning at the same time.
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.
CKCF Staff, Affiliate Staff, and several board members, attended the 2024 Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations in Wichita on October 16 – 18, hosted by the Kansas Association of Community Foundations. This year’s theme was “Empower. Engage. Evolve. Community Foundations Shaping the Future.” This conference has gained national recognition and has been designed to meet the needs of both new and seasoned board members and staff in practical training to enhance their skills in all major areas of community foundation operations. With over 400 attendees, our staff and board members were able to connect with many community foundations from across the United States.
The year is winding down! Where did 2024 go?
The team at the community foundation is here to help you navigate your charitable giving priorities all year round, and especially during the giving season when we know many of you are beginning to turn your attention to tax planning and ensuring that you’ll meet your charitable goals before the end of December.
Here’s what’s trending:
–Year-end is fast approaching! We’re providing three important tips to consider as you evaluate where you stand with your charitable giving goals for 2024 and review your tax situation with your advisors. Whether you’ve already established a fund at the community foundation or are considering it, we look forward to hearing from you.
–The community foundation is our region’s trusted source for all things philanthropy. We are honored to serve you and your family as you pursue the charitable endeavors that mean the most to you. Learn how our team helps structure your giving in ways that respect your desire for trust in the impact your dollars can make.
–Charitable giving is important to couples whether or not they have children. Discover how the community foundation can help you serve your clients’ charitable intentions to support our community across generations in situations where heirs will be involved and in situations where there are no heirs. We’re here for everyone!
Wishing you all the best for a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
With Gratitude,
Angie Tatro, CEO
Year-end is closing in, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the advice floating around about what to do before December 31. We’re making it super easy for you! Here are three reminders that typically are among the most important for year-end charitable giving.
–Give stock. Evaluate your highly-appreciated stock positions and use these assets to give to your fund at the community foundation, coordinating with your tax and financial advisors to optimize your 2024 goals. Appreciated assets generally are far better charitable gifts than cash because you not only can take advantage of the income tax deduction, but also you can avoid capital gains tax.
–Use your donor-advised fund. Consider deploying a “bundling” or “bunching” technique by making a gift to your donor-advised fund at the community foundation this calendar year that allows you to leverate itemized deductions (the standard deduction is very high, at least at the moment), and then use your donor-advised fund over the next few years to support your favorite charities.
–Explore a QCD. If you are age 70 ½ or older, you absolutely must consider making a Qualified Charitable Distribution (“QCD”) to a designated or field-of-interest fund at the community foundation. Each spouse can give up to $105,000 in 2024, and the distributions will satisfy your RMDs if you’ve also reached that age. Contact the community foundation right away to learn why the QCD is so powerful. Note that your donor-advised fund is not an eligible recipient, but there are lots of other ways you can leverage this tax-savvy giving opportunity.
November is the time to set things in motion so you don’t get caught up in the year-end rush. Reach out to the community foundation team today! We are here for you!
Fostering trust and making a differenceMany people are not aware of the extent to which America’s charitable organizations help improve quality of life in our communities. From social services to the arts, virtually every aspect of our lives is touched by the work of nonprofits. Indeed, the gifts Americans give to charity every year total more than $557 billion and provide critical support for nearly 1.5 million organizations that are helping communities thrive.
Research shows that trust continues to be an important factor in charitable giving. Unfortunately, high levels of trust sometimes can be hard to achieve; 73% of donors surveyed said they felt that it is very important to trust a charity before giving, but only 19% say they highly trust charities.
So what should you do if you know you want to support a particular organization but you’ve not quite yet gained a level of trust to go “all in?” Or what if you want to support an overall area of community need but you’re not sure which organizations are best aligned with the results you want your charitable gifts to achieve? Or what if you’re fairly certain you know the specific organizations that are addressing your areas of interest right now, but you’re concerned that this “fit” might change over time as needs shift and charities evolve?
The community foundation can help in situations like these and many others like them. Here are three examples:
–If you’ve established a donor-advised fund at the community foundation to organize your giving, lean on the team at the community foundation for insights into which charities are best suited to achieve your goals for impact at any given time. Our team stays up to date on local charities, their priorities, and their programs and staff. We can provide information and insights to help you make informed decisions.
–If you’re committed to supporting a specific charity but you’d rather not give the money outright, you could consider setting up a designated fund at the community foundation to make distributions to the charity according to parameters you set. Because the charity receives the money in increments every year, charitable dollars remaining in the fund are protected from the charity’s creditors if the charity were to fall on hard times.
–If you’d like the community foundation to help out even more, you might consider establishing a field-of-interest fund so that the community foundation team can deploy its expertise in selecting charities that are best suited from year to year to achieve your goals for community impact.
–To ensure that the mission of the community foundation itself stays strong and that dollars will flow to support critical community needs for generations, you can establish an unrestricted fund at the community foundation. You can add to the unrestricted fund during your lifetime, such as through gifts of appreciated stock, and you can also include a gift to the fund in your estate plan through your will or an IRA beneficiary designation.
The community foundation is unique in its structure as a perpetual institution governed by an independent board of directors. Our mission is to improve the quality of life in our region across generations by connecting donors to the causes they care about and leading on critical community issues. We’re honored to work alongside you and your family as you build trust with the charitable organizations that are making a difference for everyone who lives and works in the community we love.
At the community foundation, we’re honored to work with our donors and fund holders to achieve a wide range of charitable giving priorities often involving multiple charitable giving vehicles. It’s not uncommon, for example, for an individual’s or couple’s “portfolio” of philanthropy with the community foundation to look something like this:
–A donor-advised fund to make it easy to donate appreciated stock and organize annual giving to favorite charities.
–A designated fund to support the mission of a particular charity over the long term, especially because when one spouse reaches the age of 70 ½, the designated fund can receive tax-savvy Qualified Charitable Distributions from IRAs.
–A beneficiary designation on an IRA to leave those assets to an unrestricted fund at the community foundation, avoiding both income tax and estate tax, so that the fund can support the community foundation’s mission in perpetuity.
What’s more, many people don’t realize that a mix of charitable giving vehicles works well to achieve your charitable goals whether or not you have children. For example, if you have children, you can work with the community foundation to explore naming them as successor advisors on your donor-advised fund to carry on your philanthropic priorities beyond your lifetime. If you don’t have children, your donor-advised fund can roll into your designated fund or unrestricted fund following your death.
Changing demographics are becoming a catalyst for the community foundation’s increased role in many estate plans. For example, not having children is becoming more common, both among millennials and older people. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 20% of U.S. adults age 50 and older hadn’t had children. In addition, children of affluent parents tend to move away, which means that many parents embrace the notion that working with the community foundation can help children maintain ties to their childhood community even across generations.
Indeed, many couples who don’t have children and couples who do have children feel a strong sense of peace of mind knowing that the community foundation will be involved with their charitable legacy long after their lifetimes, whether through advising children and grandchildren or administering charitable bequests for maximum community impact. The community foundation always has its finger on the pulse of our region’s greatest needs and the nonprofits that are meeting those needs at any given point in time, whether right now or decades in the future.
Please reach out to the team at the community foundation to learn more about how we can help you leave a legacy across generations, whether or not you have children. We’re 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 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.
Associate Director, Hillsboro CF
Chad Hughbanks is a lifelong resident of Hillsboro, KS. He graduated from Hillsboro High School and attended Salina Area Technical College where he earned his Associate’s Degree in Commercial Art. With over 12 years of experience in customer service and sales, he has cultivated a strong ability to build lasting relationships. Prior to that, he honed his graphic design skills in both corporate and freelance settings. Chad has been a member of the Hillsboro Community Foundation (HCF) community for nearly four years. As a grant cycle reviewer for three years, he has had the privilege of serving twice as a community member and once as a board member. Since joining the HCF board in December 2023, he has been deeply involved in the organization’s match campaign and have coordinated numerous events.
Chad and his wife have two children; their son is in the second grade, and their daughter is a year and a half. He is committed to making a positive impact on the community where he grew up.
Funds for year-end, gifts from your IRA, and assets you can give to your fund
Hello from the community foundation!
We’re honored to work with so many of you as you support the charitable causes that mean the most to you and your family. If you’ve not yet established a fund at the community foundation, please reach out! We’d love to help you structure a charitable giving plan that’s just right for you, including a donor-advised fund, legacy gift, field-of-interest fund, or all of the above and more. Our goal is to help you make a difference in the ways that mean the most to you.
Here’s what’s trending:
–We’re so glad to see that field-of-interest funds and designated funds are gaining popularity. A field-of-interest fund allows you to support a specific charitable cause by leveraging the community foundation’s expertise. A designated fund allows you to support a favorite charity or charities over time. Best of all, if you’re over the age of 70 ½, both of these funds are eligible recipients of Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) from your IRA, up to $105,000 a year. Reach out to learn more about field-of-interest funds, designated funds, and QCDs.
–Many Americans hold a significant portion of their net worth in one or more IRAs. Have you thoroughly considered all of the ways your IRA can help you meet your charitable giving goals, both during your lifetime and through a legacy? Giving to charity from an IRA is one of the most tax-savvy moves you can make. Reach out to the community foundation team to learn more.
–It’s that time of year! You may be starting to review your tax projections to determine an ideal level of charitable giving at the end of 2024. Before you start writing checks, stop to consider the many types of assets that frequently make even better gifts to your fund at the community foundation. Our team can help you and your advisors identify the best assets for year-end giving.
Finally, and most importantly, our hearts go out to the millions of people affected by Hurricane Helene. Community foundations in the affected areas and across the country are making it as easy as possible to donate to relief efforts. Please contact the team at the community foundation to learn more about how you can help swiftly and most effectively.
–Angie Tatro, CKCF CEO
Field-of-interest and designated funds could be your year-end friends
As you’re looking ahead to year-end giving, you’re likely thinking about transferring cash, or ideally appreciated stock, to your donor-advised fund so that you can maximize tax benefits and support the charities you love. And absolutely, a donor-advised fund can be a fabulous component of your overall charitable giving portfolio.
Think beyond donor-advised funds, though, especially at year-end. The community foundation offers a wide variety of funds to meet your charitable giving goals and also help you maximize your tax and financial planning efforts.
Two excellent fund types that are sometimes overlooked are designated funds and field-of-interest funds.
When you set up a field-of-interest fund at the community foundation, you’re setting aside charitable dollars for a specific charitable purpose. For example, you might decide to set up a field-of-interest to support research for rare diseases, to support organizations that assist homeless families in getting back on their feet, to enable art museums to acquire works that celebrate the region’s diversity, and so on. With a field-of-interest fund, you’re leaning on the knowledgeable team at the community foundation to distribute grants to achieve your wishes. As is the case with a donor-advised fund, you’ll choose a name for your fund, whether you wish to use your own name (e.g., Samuels Family Fund or Samuels Family Fund for the Arts), maintain anonymity (e.g., Maryville Fund for the Arts), or something else altogether (e.g., Bettering Our World Fund).
A designated fund is a good choice if you know you want to support a particular charity or charities for multiple years. This is useful so that the distributions can be spread out over time to help with the charity or charities’ cash flow planning, which allows you to potentially benefit from a larger charitable tax deduction in the year you establish the fund if, for example, your tax rates are higher than usual in that particular year. Your designated fund document allows you to specify the charities to receive distributions according to a spending policy you select.
Last but not least, if you are over the age of 70 ½, pay particular attention to designated funds and field-of-interest funds as year end approaches because these two types of funds, unlike donor-advised funds, can receive “Qualified Charitable Distributions” from IRAs–up to $105,000 per person in 2024!
As always, thank you for the opportunity to work together!
Your IRA is a force for good
It probably would not surprise you to learn that over 42% of Americans own an IRA. In many cases, IRAs–especially for people who have rolled over one or more employer retirement plans–represent a significant portion of a household’s net worth. When it comes to charitable planning, IRAs should never be ignored. Indeed, your IRA may offer some of the best opportunities to support the causes you care about.
For starters, no matter what your age, consider the benefits of changing the beneficiary designation on your IRA to name your fund at the community foundation as the recipient of all or a portion of the account. This is an easy, tax-effective way to leave a bequest to support the causes you care about. The community foundation can help you structure the terms of your fund to match your intended charitable legacy. For example, you can make arrangements for your children to serve as advisors on the fund to recommend grants to particular areas of interest, or the community foundation itself could deploy the money to support the community’s areas of greatest need or even the support foundation’s own mission-based operations.
The reason an IRA beneficiary designation is such an ideal form of charitable bequest is because of the tax advantages. Dollars flowing to the community foundation from an IRA upon your death are not subject to estate tax. In addition, as a public charity, the community foundation does not pay income taxes on the IRA assets it receives. By contrast, if you were to name your children as beneficiaries of the IRA, those IRA distributions to the children are subject to income tax, which can be hefty given the tax treatment of inherited IRAs. Plus, the IRA assets would be included in your estate for estate tax purposes.
Exploring ways to give your IRA to charity can also serve as a helpful reminder to review all of your beneficiary designations. Although they may appear to be innocuous and may even be easy to overlook, those beneficiary designation forms actually represent critical components of your estate plan. To understand this, you need look no further than the cautionary tale of a Procter & Gamble employee who died in 2015, leaving behind a retirement plan. Way back in 1987, the employee had named his girlfriend as the beneficiary of his retirement plan. Despite their relationship ending, the employee never updated the beneficiary designation. By the time the employee died, the retirement plan, which had grown to nearly $1 million, passed via the beneficiary designation to the 1980s ex-girlfriend.
Finally, if you have reached the age of 70 ½, you can make what’s known as a Qualified Charitable Distribution (“QCD”) from your IRA directly to certain charities, including a designated fund or a field-of-interest fund at the community foundation–up to $105,000 per year per spouse. You won’t pay income tax on the distribution and, happily, if you’ve reached the age for Required Minimum Distributions, your QCDs count toward those distributions.
The upshot? Next time you review your financial and estate plan with your advisor, take a close look at your IRAs. If you intend to leave a charitable legacy, or if you’d like to support your favorite organizations during your retirement years, your IRA may be your best bet to make a big difference in the causes you care about.
Variety is the spice of … giving
If you’ve been working with the community foundation for a while, you certainly know that it’s easy to make a contribution to your fund. And by now, you likely know not to automatically reach for your checkbook! The team at the community foundation is happy to work with you and your tax advisors to review the options for types of gifts. Here’s food for thought:
Marketable securities
Gifts of long-term appreciated stock to a donor-advised or other type of fund at the community foundation is always one of the most tax-savvy ways to support favorite charitable causes because capital gains tax can be avoided. Gifts of publicly-traded stock, for example, are easy to transfer to a fund. The community foundation team provides transfer instructions to make the process simple.
As is the case with a cash gift, the community foundation will provide a receipt for tax purposes, and the gift of stock will be valued at the shares’ fair market value on the date of transfer. When the community foundation sells the shares, the proceeds flow into your fund without any reduction for capital gains taxes. This is because the community foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and therefore does not pay income tax. That would not have been the case, however, if you had sold the stock first and then transferred the proceeds to your fund; you would owe capital gains tax on the sale. Especially in cases where you have held the stock a long time and it’s gone up significantly in value, the capital gains hit can be big.
Closely-held business interests
The community foundation team is happy to work with you and your advisors to explore how you might give shares of a closely-held business to a fund at the community foundation. Not only will transfers be eligible for a charitable deduction during the year of transfer (and at fair market value if the shares are held for more than one year), but also these gifts could potentially reduce income tax burdens triggered upon a future sale of the business. Be sure to talk with our team well before any potential sale is in the works; otherwise, you could lose out on tax benefits. Gifts of closely-held business interests are powerful but can be tricky to administer.
QCDs from IRAs
As always, keep in mind that the Qualified Charitable Distribution (“QCD”) is a very smart way to support charitable causes. If you are over 70 ½, you can direct up to $105,000 from your IRA to certain charities, including a field-of-interest, designated, unrestricted, or scholarship fund at the community foundation. If you are subject to the rules for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), QCDs count toward those RMDs. That means you avoid income tax on the funds distributed to charity. Plus, keep in mind that leaving your IRA to your fund through a beneficiary designation is a very tax savvy move, so be sure to discuss this option with our team and your tax advisors.
Real estate
You can give a tax-deductible gift of real estate, such as farmland or commercial property, to your fund in a variety of ways. An outright gift is always an option; lifetime gifts of real estate held for more than one year are deductible for income tax purposes at 100% of the fair market value of the property on the date of the gift, which also avoids capital gains tax and reduces the value of your taxable estate. Other ways to give real estate include a bargain sale or a transfer to a charitable remainder trust which produces lifetime income for you and your family.
Life insurance
Don’t overlook life insurance as an effective charitable giving tool, whether by naming your fund at the community foundation as the beneficiary or, in the case of whole life policies, naming the fund as beneficiary and transferring the policy itself. If you transfer a policy, you may be able to make annual, tax-deductible contributions to the community foundation to cover the premiums.
Other “alternative” assets
The community foundation is happy to discuss your options for giving other non-cash assets to your fund at the community foundation, including oil and gas interests, negotiable instruments, cryptocurrency, artwork, and collectibles.
We look forward to working with you to explore all the options!
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.
Hello from the community foundation!
Thank you for the opportunity to work together! Already we are hearing from many donors and fund holders about your year-end giving plans. We couldn’t be happier that so many of you are planning ahead to be sure you have plenty of time to accomplish your charitable goals for 2024. Of course, we’re happy to help put things together right up until the end of December, but it’s really nice to have plenty of time to ensure that charitable, tax, and estate planning objectives are all considered. This is especially important if you’re just getting started working with the community foundation or are considering doing so this year. We’re ready to talk when you are!
In this issue, we’re covering three topics that have popped up several times recently in conversations.
–With potential tax law changes on the horizon, many people are taking a closer look at how the standard deduction might impact their charitable planning for the next few years. Learn how the community foundation can help you and your advisors work through various scenarios for organizing your giving so you don’t leave dollars on the table either for yourself or your favorite charities.
–Many people are involved with charities both as donors and as board members. If you’re one of them, you might have the opportunity to learn about different types of endowments–both the kind of endowment that a charity itself establishes as well as the kind of endowment that you as a private donor might establish for the charity. The community foundation can help with both.
–Giving to charity makes people happy. That certainly does not come as a surprise to most people who incorporate philanthropy into their lives, but you might be interested to learn how the research on these positive emotions connects to the charitable giving tools available through the community foundation. Lots of reasons to smile!
As always, we look forward to hearing from you! Thank you for everything you do for the community we all love.
With Gratitude,
Angie Tatro, CKCF CEO
Standard deduction planning: Avoid leaving dollars behind
One of many items on the legislative “watch list,” especially in light of the upcoming elections, is the standard deduction. Without intervening legislation, in 2026 the standard deduction for individual taxpayers younger than age 65 is scheduled to drop from $14,600 to $8,300.
While this may spell higher taxes for some taxpayers, the news could be positive for charitable giving. You’ll recall that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 increased the standard deduction significantly. As a result, only 9% of taxpayers itemized deductions in 2020 compared with 31% in 2017. Although certainly not the only factor motivating charitable giving, tax incentives do play a role in donors’ decision-making about whether, when, and how much to give. Indeed, statistics recently released by the National Bureau of Economic Research indicated that the increased standard deduction resulted in $20 billion fewer charitable donations in 2018 alone.
The community foundation is happy to work with you and your tax advisors to map out a charitable giving plan for the next few years to navigate anticipated changes in the law. For example, this year you could consider using a technique called “bunching” to make two years’ worth of gifts up front to your donor-advised fund to take advantage of the standard deduction while it is still high.
If you determine that bunching is right for you, naturally, cash is easy to give in a year of higher-than-expected income. So, for example, if you earn a large bonus this year, get a big increase in compensation, take a job buyout, or experience a significant liquidity event, your surplus income could make bunching ideal.
Most of the time, though, even when you deploy a bunching strategy, donating highly-appreciated marketable securities is a better choice than giving cash because it is extremely tax efficient. Stock given to a public charity, such as your donor-advised or other type of fund at the community foundation, typically is deductible at the asset’s fair market value. The community foundation, in turn, pays no capital gains tax on its sale of the asset, thereby generating more dollars to support your philanthropic interests than if you had sold the stock and given the proceeds to your fund.
You can think outside of the box, too, and explore other assets that make great gifts to your fund. As is the case with gifts of other long-term appreciated assets, a gift of real estate or closely-held stock avoids capital gains taxes and results in more money for your favorite causes than if you had sold the asset, taken the tax hit, and donated the proceeds.
The bottom line? Now is a perfect time to look ahead at your charitable giving plans so that you don’t leave dollars behind. Your own financial situation, as well as the charities you support, will benefit from your careful planning. The community foundation is here to help!
Giving to others gives us lots of reasons to smile
The community foundation is honored to serve at the center of your philanthropy. Whether you’ve established a donor-advised or other type of fund, arranged for a bequest to a fund or to the community foundation itself, or both, our team strives to help you organize your giving to make it easy and convenient. If you’ve not yet established a fund or arranged for a bequest but are considering it, we look forward to continuing the conversation!
Charitable giving is important not only locally and nationally, but also internationally. Indeed, the World Giving Index 2024 Global Trends in Generosity reports that 4.3 billion people worldwide helped someone they didn’t know, volunteered time, or donated money to a good cause in the preceding month.
It’s no surprise that research indicates that giving to others actually puts donors in a good mood. This is especially the case, studies show, in three ways:
–The act of giving feels good in the moment
–People like having choices about their giving
–People like to see the results of their giving
We know this intuitively based on our own experiences. For instance, many of us enjoy picking out a birthday gift for a friend or family member and watching them open it.
The same good feelings translate to charitable giving. People enjoy working with the community foundation. Certainly one reason is because the community foundation activates the research’s three key factors:
–Feels good in the moment. The community foundation makes it easy to give cash, stock, or other assets to a type of fund that is the best fit for you, whether that’s a donor-advised fund, designated fund, field-of-interest fund, or unrestricted endowment fund. When you initiate the stock transfer, for example, it’s fun because the community foundation makes it easy. You know immediately that you’ve taken meaningful action.
–Offers choices. The community foundation’s tools are flexible to meet your charitable giving goals. We can help you set up an annual giving strategy, establish a bequest to your fund in your estate plan, and everything in between. Most of all, we want to help you support the causes that are most important to you, whether those are particular charities or broader areas of community need.
–Shows results. The community foundation has its finger on the pulse of our region’s priorities and how charitable giving can improve quality of life for everyone. Every day, we work with you and other families, individuals, and businesses to help you not only make a difference, but also actually see the difference you are making. From research and hands-on site visits, to networking with other donors and meeting with community leaders, our team will provide a wide range of opportunities for you to see first hand the results of your philanthropy.
We look forward to helping you incorporate charitable giving into your life in ways that help the community and make you happy!
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.
The Central Kansas Community Foundation held an Award Ceremony on August 27, highlighting the Central Kansas Kids FUNd, a testament to how ordinary people can make extraordinary contributions at the new Newton Public Library located in Newton, Kansas Lena Marie Haun, a Wichitan who began her career as a teacher, went on to hold several secretarial positions, including a 26-year tenure with the Dean of the College of Health
Professions at Wichita State University, retiring at the age of 78. Marie had a deep love for children and left a bequest of more than $600,000, which now permanently funds the KidsFUNd, supporting children’s charities across South Central Kansas.
Since 2012, her generous planned gift has provided numerous grants to children’s charities throughout Central Kansas and will continue to do so in perpetuity. The L. Marie Haun Charitable Fund for Children has awarded over $280,000 since 2012 to organizations focused on children’s behavioral research, child welfare, parenting education, and strengthening families.
This year’s grant recipients were introduced by CKCF Board Members; Amy Budde, Allen Wedel, Jennifer Vogts, Keegan LeFevre, Rick McNary, and Tami Carlgren.
These organizations are recognized for their outstanding work and the significant impact they continue to make in their communities.
