Imagine the future. Your community foundation helps bring your charitable goals to life.
Spring has arrived! It is such a pleasure to hear from so many individuals, families, and businesses about how your charitable giving plans for 2025 are taking shape. 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!
Over the weeks ahead, consider spending a few minutes getting up to speed on trends in charitable giving and ways you can incorporate philanthropy into your life. To that end, here are three topics we think you’ll enjoy.
–In the aftermath of tax season, many families are evaluating what they could have done differently to maximize tax efficiencies and support the causes they care about in a more meaningful way. Learn how the community foundation can work with you and your advisors to set in motion the charitable components of your financial and estate plan.
–It’s a tough world out there! Charitable giving is such an important part of disaster relief and responses to other crises. Generous donations support much-needed assistance for people in need and can help speed along recovery efforts. Learn how the community foundation can be an important sounding board as you evaluate ways you can help.
–Wrapping charitable giving into your family’s activities is easier than you might think, whether you’re throwing a “birthday party that gives back” or teaching your kids about budgeting for donations. Check out the community foundation’s quick tips for making philanthropy a part of your kids’ lives in easy, uplifting ways.
Thank you for the opportunity to work together and for your continued commitment to making our community a better place for all. We look forward to our next conversation!
Angie Tatro,
CKCF CEO
Make a plan–and make your favorite charities part of it
At some point during your adult life, you’ve likely realized that it would be wise to put in place a will, trust, and powers of attorney, as well as undertake at least a basic level of financial planning to stay on track with retirement and other wealth-related goals for yourself and for your family. Perhaps you’re also among the many people who have thoughtfully incorporated charitable giving strategies into a comprehensive financial and estate plan.
If you’ve not yet wrapped charitable giving provisions into your will, trust, and financial plans, it’s never too late (or too early) to do so. The community foundation is happy to work with you and your legal, tax, and wealth advisors to set up charitable giving structures and processes that align with your intentions to support favorite charities and causes, as well as reinforce the tax and estate planning objectives you’ve set in motion.
Indeed, formalizing your charitable intentions can bring a deep sense of purpose. By incorporating charitable giving into your estate plan, your values and philanthropic commitments can continue beyond your lifetime.
What’s more, lifetime charitable giving can be part of a strategic wealth management plan, allowing you to optimize your financial resources while supporting causes you care about. For example, charitable income tax deductions for your donations may reduce your taxable income and lower your annual tax bill. Plus, donating appreciated assets, such as publicly-traded stock held for more than one year, can help you avoid capital gains taxes. In addition, dollars flowing to charities following your death can help minimize the burden of estate taxes.
The community foundation team would be honored to help you develop a philanthropy plan, starting with lifetime giving and incorporating estate gifts as your legacy intentions take shape. As you consider whether the time might be right for you to formalize your charitable giving, here are three tips to consider–all of which the community foundation can help you achieve:
Give to what you know. Most people experience the greatest joy from giving to causes that are personally familiar. Personal experience makes it easier to understand how the charity is using your dollars. So, for example, if you’ve had experience with helping foster children, you are likely to understand how the organization is using your donation to support training for foster parents. Please ask the community foundation team for insights! It’s our job to keep up with the good work of charities that are meeting local needs.
Give where you are. Even with the increasing number of community challenges across the country and the globe, sometimes the greatest needs are right here at home. The community foundation team can help you identify opportunities to support local charities by gathering information about the overall need and how a particular charity addresses that need. When you give to local organizations, you are in a strong position to have confidence in your gift.
Give to the causes you love. Donations to charities that are aligned with your own passions make you feel the best and ultimately make the most difference because you’re likely to continue giving. The community foundation team is here to help bring your community dreams to life through the power of philanthropy. And that feels great!
If you’ve already established a donor-advised fund or other type of fund with the community foundation, or if you are considering getting started with the community foundation this year, we are here for you! The community foundation is honored to serve as your home for charitable giving. Our team looks forward to hearing from you.
Crisis giving: Proceed with caution, but do proceed!
It’s a natural human response to want to help in a crisis–even though it’s hard for many people to ask for help. Indeed, Stanford social psychologist Xuan Zhao notes that people generally underestimate others’ willingness to help and overestimate the inconvenience it may cause. Asking for help can lead to meaningful experiences and often builds powerful human connections. That’s what philanthropy is all about.
Given how we are wired, it’s easy to understand why natural disasters, humanitarian tragedies, and other crises often prompt people to make charitable donations. It’s often tempting to give to a charity without a lot of thought, both because of the emotional pull as well as the urgency of the human need presented by the crisis. But that’s usually not wise. Here’s why:
–It’s important to make sure the charity is reputable and has a proven track record.
–It’s also important to consider that giving cash is usually the best option, even when you know the ultimate need is for food and medical supplies, for example. Cash allows charities to purchase exactly what is needed, often at a discount, and support local economies by buying from local businesses.
–You should also be cautious of high-pressure appeals that urge immediate donations without providing detailed information about what the charity is really doing.
The good news is that the community foundation is here for you! Whether you’ve established a donor-advised or other type of fund at the community foundation, contributed to an existing fund, or are considering getting involved, our team is happy to serve as a sounding board.
Our team can help you sort through the many options for giving to crisis relief to help ensure that your dollars make a difference. We’ll help protect your gift from fraud, help you maximize your tax benefits, strive to avoid duplication of relief efforts, and help your donations both meet immediate needs and fuel long-term recovery.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Many happy returns: How to help your kids celebrate charitable giving
If you’ve ever considered wrapping charitable giving into a child’s birthday party, you are not alone! Lots of parents are encouraging their kids to have guests bring gifts to charity instead of presents, whether it’s collecting books for a children’s hospital, pet toys for an animal shelter, or non-perishable food for a local food bank. Guests can feel part of something special by bringing items that align with the birthday child’s interests, and the party can include activities like making cards for the elderly or packaging donations together.
Even bigger than that, though, is the opportunity to educate your kids, starting at an early age, about charities and how every dollar can make a difference. Here are a few pointers:
Be intentional. Teaching children the value of charitable giving requires intentional strategies that blend financial education with empathy-building experiences. By including philanthropy as a regular part of your family routines and traditions, you can help your kids understand wealth as a tool for positive impact rather than just personal gain. Over time, you’ll see that this approach fosters both financial literacy and compassion for others.
It starts with money–and more. It’s often helpful to start the conversation by talking about money management and community needs, side by side. For example, you can explain how $100 might feed a family for a week, or how $1,000 could fund educational supplies for an entire classroom. You could even help your kids create a “giving budget” so they can practice ways to make their intentions visual and concrete. If you have established a donor-advised fund or other type of fund at the community foundation, log in to your account and show your kids how it works.
Offer choices. Most kids don’t like to be told what to do (!), so it’s important to empower children by showing them how to research and pick causes that are aligned with their interests. The community foundation’s website is a great place to start. This is where kids can see the big picture of how charitable giving connects to our region’s quality of life, as well as learn about the community foundation’s priority initiatives and the nonprofits doing important work on the ground every day.
Get out and about. Children (and adults) learn by doing, so try to find opportunities for hands-on involvement. You and your kids could volunteer together at food banks, organize neighborhood donation drives, or create handmade items for those in need. The community foundation is always happy to offer resources that will help you and your family find volunteer opportunities that are a good fit for your areas of interest and the ages of your children.
As always, the community foundation is happy to be your sounding board as you get your family involved in charitable giving. We are honored to work with all generations of community-minded people! The future of our region depends on it, and we are 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.