Author: ckcfadmin

Donor Connect – March 2025

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Imagine the future.  Your community foundation helps bring your charitable goals to life.

Greetings from the community foundation! 

It’s our honor to work with so many individuals, families, and businesses to structure your charitable plans! If you are already working with the community foundation, thank you! If you are considering opening a donor-advised fund or other fund this year, we look forward to it!

As always, the community foundation is committed to sharing tips and insights to enrich your experience with philanthropy. 

–Tax time can be filled with to do lists and complexity. The community foundation is always here to offer simple tips and reminders about the tax rules related to charitable giving. Check out five important reminders that can help you get oriented as you gear up for this year’s filings.  

–In some cases, monthly giving to your favorite charities makes a lot of sense and can help organizations meet cash flow needs. In many cases, though, it might actually be better for a charity to receive a single gift each year. The community foundation can help you structure a giving plan that is a win-win for both you and the causes you love.

–We’re honored to work with so many individuals who have made arrangements for a gift to the community foundation in a will, trust, or IRA beneficiary designation. Many legacy donors have discovered that giving while they’re living is a wonderful way to get involved and make a difference right now, in addition to later. Learn how the community foundation can help you do both. 

Thank you for being part of the community foundation! We’re honored to be your home for charitable giving. Together through philanthropy, we can help our region thrive.  

Angie Tatro,
CKCF CEO

Just the facts: Five tax reminders for charitable giving

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. 

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.

“Thanks, but …”: The hidden cost of small gifts to your favorite charities

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. 

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.

Giving later and now: Make an impact even before your legacy gift

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 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.

It’s Scholarship Season!

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It’s scholarship season!

Visit our SCHOLARSHIPS page and pay close attention to when the cycles open and close within the different affiliate service areas. If you have questions, contact Brandi Garnica, CKCF Program Officer – Scholarships, at brandi@centralkansascf.org.

Last year, CKCF and affiliates together granted $111,150 to 100 students from 58 competitive scholarship funds in the 2024 scholarship cycle.

Your generosity makes a world of difference as you will see in the note below.

“I am writing to express my gratitude for awarding me the Richard Leah May Ross Memorial Scholarship. I am honored and appreciative to have received this scholarship. This scholarship will help ease the financial burden of my education. It will help me to pursue my academic and career goals with greater confidence. I am committed to making the most of this opportunity and to uphold the values and standards that this scholarship represents. I look forward to contributing positively to my community and to making a positive impact in my chosen field. I will be attending Fort Hays State University in the fall. I plan to major in social work and work towards my master’s degree. I am planning on living on campus so this scholarship will help me pay for housing. Once again, thank you for your generosity and support. Your investment in my education is truly invaluable. I am very grateful for your belief in my potential.”

Sincerely, Addison Rogers

Donor Connect – February 2025

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Imagine the future.  Your community foundation helps bring your charitable goals to life.

Greetings from the community foundation!

The year is in full swing! It is our pleasure to work with so many individuals, families, and businesses to establish charitable funds and legacies to achieve the community impact that means the most to you. For those of you who have not yet established a fund but are considering it, thank you! We look forward to learning more about your charitable goals and identifying ways the community foundation can help.

Here’s what’s trending here at the community foundation.

–This is a great time of year to reflect on the causes you love and the reasons you love them. Whether it’s a favorite charity because you’ve served on the board of directors for years, or an organization you’ve recently begun supporting, the community foundation’s tools can help you deepen your involvement and meet your estate planning goals at the same time.

–Missed deadlines are no fun, especially where tax rules and the IRS are concerned. If you intended to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution in 2024 but missed the deadline, take a moment right now to be sure you are planning for 2025. QCDs are excellent tools for people who’ve reached the age of 70 ½, and the community foundation can help you make the most of the opportunity.

–Having choices is a good thing, right? Of course! But that doesn’t mean it’s not overwhelming to be faced with a lot of options, especially where charitable giving is concerned. That’s where the community foundation comes in. We can help you sort through the options, simplify a strategy, and set a plan in motion to achieve both your philanthropic and tax planning goals.

Wishing you all the best for February!

With gratitude,

Angie Tatro,
CKCF CEO

 Celebrating the causes you love

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

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.

QC … drat! If you missed the 2024 deadline, start planning now

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.

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!

Gifts to your fund: Breaking through the paradox of choice

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.

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.

FOUNDATION CONNECTION!

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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.

Join Zoom Call

Donor Connect – January 2025

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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 diligence

You’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 giving

Your 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 thing

If 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.

December is CKCF’s Match Month!

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CKCF has been granted another match campaign through the Patterson Family Foundation (PFF)!

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!

CKCF Fund List

Donor Connect – December 2024

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The tax road ahead, doing good in retirement, and life insurance as a charitable giving tool

Greetings 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 ahead

No 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.

Staff Attends National Conference

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2024 Annual National Conference for Growing Community Foundations

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.

Donor Connect – November 2024

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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

A trio of tips to wrap up 2024

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 difference

Many 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.

Generational impact, with or without children

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.

New Hire for Hillsboro Community Foundation

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Chad Hughbanks

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.