The Philanthropy Brief: June Edition
The Philanthropy Brief: Insights for Trusted Advisors
At The Community Foundation of Muncie & Delaware County, we understand that charitable giving is an essential part of many clients' financial and estate plans. As a trusted resource for philanthropy, we work alongside professional advisors—attorneys, CPAs, accountants, and financial planners—to help their clients achieve meaningful, tax-efficient, and impactful giving.
The Philanthropy Brief is designed specifically for professional advisors looking to deepen their understanding of charitable strategies, planned giving options, and the unique benefits of working with The Community Foundation. Through these posts, we aim to provide practical insights, real-world examples, and expert perspectives to help you guide your clients in aligning their financial plans with their philanthropic goals.
By working together, we can ensure that generosity is not only maximized but also makes a lasting difference for our community. Let’s create a future where giving is both strategic and deeply personal—because when advisors and The Community Foundation collaborate, we all make an impact that extends beyond today.
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Your Community Foundation helps you serve your charitable clients.
Thank you to so many of you who have reached out recently with questions about how pending tax legislation might impact the charitable planning strategies you recommend to your clients. The Community Foundation team keeps a close eye on legislative developments related to philanthropy, and we are always here as a sounding board for you and other attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors.
Our latest update addresses these potential tax law changes, and we’re also covering two important, tried-and-true charitable planning strategies.
Tax law changes are on the horizon, and pending legislation creates a lot of unknowns for advisors and the clients you serve. The Community Foundation is happy to provide a high-level overview of what’s on the table and offer insights for how proposed tax reform might impact your clients’ charitable giving strategies.
As you work with charitable clients, you may discover that they’ve established a donor-advised fund at a national commercial provider. It’s easier than your clients (and you!) might think to transfer this donor-advised fund to a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation, which offers the same tax benefits plus the benefits of local connection. Learn how it works, step by step, and how The Community Foundation can help.
As always, we’re honored to be your first call whenever the topic of charitable giving arises. Our goal is to help your clients make a difference, especially during these uncertain times. The Community Foundation is here for you, for your clients, and for our community.
More questions than answers: Pending tax legislation
There’s little doubt that you’ve seen extensive news coverage of the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" (H.R. 1) that passed the House of Representatives by a 215-214 vote on May 22, 2025, and now moves to the Senate, where significant changes are expected before final passage. And that is the primary takeaway here: Significant changes are expected. This makes it impossible to predict right now how your clients might be impacted by tax law changes.
Still, it’s important to be aware of key components of the bill that could impact estate and financial planning. Three key provisions rise to the top as advisors consider how their charitable clients might be affected:
No sunset of estate tax exemption
The bill makes permanent the expiring 2017 tax cuts under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). This means that the much-anticipated sunset of the increased estate tax exemption might not happen at the end of this year after all. If the estate tax exemption remains high, a smaller segment of your clients will be motivated to use charitable giving as a way to avoid estate tax. Still, though, because people rarely give to charity solely for tax avoidance purposes, your clients remain very interested in discussing charitable giving and incorporating philanthropy into their estate and financial plans.
Standard deduction stays high
Proposals in the bill would make permanent the higher standard deduction levels from the TCJA, and even add an additional temporary increase through 2028. The upshot here is that few taxpayers itemize their deductions, reducing the number of people eligible to claim a charitable deduction. The still-high standard deduction likely could signal continuation of the decline in charitable giving following the 2017 tax cuts. On the flip side, the bill introduces a modest "above-the-line" charitable deduction for nonitemizers—$150 for individuals and $300 for joint filers.
Increased taxes on private foundations
The bill sharply increases excise taxes on the investment income of large private foundations, raising rates from the current 1.39% to as much as 10% for the largest entities, although private foundations with less than $50 million in assets would see no change. What this means for your charitable clients is that private foundations may become less attractive. Many nonprofit leaders are concerned that this could impact charitable giving; it might also mean that donor-advised funds could become even more attractive. Certainly The Community Foundation remains committed to helping your clients establish donor-advised funds and other vehicles to actively support their favorite charities as well as ensure that critical local needs are addressed.
So what’s next? The Senate is expected to begin its markup in June, with the process likely extending into July or August as both chambers reconcile differences before sending the bill to President Trump for signature.
As always, The Community Foundation will keep you posted! Please reach out anytime. Our team is happy to discuss options for your clients’ charitable giving to ensure that they’re supporting their favorite causes and important local needs in the most effective ways possible under any set of tax laws.
Easier than you might think: Moving a donor-advised fund to The Community Foundation
As you advise clients on charitable giving, you’re likely aware of the growing popularity of the donor-advised fund as a flexible, tax-efficient tool for philanthropy. Many families appreciate how donor-advised funds can streamline giving, foster family engagement, and serve as a launchpad for deeper community impact.
Recently, we’ve engaged with many professional advisors—attorneys, accountants, and financial planners—who work with clients utilizing community foundations in a variety of ways, ranging from contributing to important initiatives, supporting the community’s foundation’s operating endowment, making qualified charitable distributions from IRAs, or participating in foundation-hosted events that address critical local priorities.
Interestingly, we have discovered that some advisors were not aware that their clients had established donor-advised funds through national financial institutions. Although these clients are familiar with The Community Foundation, they simply did not know that The Community Foundation could help them in multiple ways, including establishing a donor-advised fund to support favorite charities.
It’s easier–and more beneficial–than you might think for your client to move a donor-advised fund to The Community Foundation! Here’s what you need to know:
Tax and administrative advantages are the same
The Community Foundation offers donor-advised funds with the same tax and administrative advantages as national providers, including:
Online access for clients to view fund balances, contributions, and grant history
Simple grantmaking process to qualified charities
Consolidated tax reporting, often with a single year-end letter for all contributions and grants
Comprehensive back-office support for administration, tax receipts, recordkeeping, and compliance with 501(c)(3) requirements
Favorable tax deductibility for contributions, including gifts of cash, securities, and other assets
Added value at The Community Foundation
Unlike many national donor-advised fund sponsors, The Community Foundation offers a suite of high-touch, locally-informed services that can enhance your clients’ philanthropic strategies, such as:
Personalized service from staff experienced in structuring complex gifts (e.g., appreciated stock, real estate, closely-held business interests, estate gifts)
Local expertise on community needs, nonprofit effectiveness, and high-impact grantmaking
Opportunities for collaboration with other donors and access to educational forums featuring local and national experts
Deep engagement in specific issue areas, including educational opportunities and hands-on involvement for clients and their families
Impact measurement support to help clients track and communicate the outcomes of their giving
Family and corporate philanthropy services to foster long-term, multi-generational charitable engagement
Administrative fees that are reinvested in the community, supporting local operations and amplifying The Community Foundation’s mission
Direct access to local experts who can research and recommend causes aligned with your clients’ goals
Staff with deep community roots who maintain close relationships with nonprofit leaders and stay attuned to emerging needs
What next?
The steps to transfer a donor-advised fund are surprisingly simple:
Work with The Community Foundation team to establish a donor-advised fund. Our straightforward, easy-to-complete paperwork makes it seamless and fast. Your client can mirror the terms of the existing donor-advised fund, or adjust successor advisors and legacy provisions based on their charitable intentions. Our team will walk through the process with you and your client.
Work with your client to request a grant from the national donor-advised fund provider. Depending on the provider, this can sometimes be completed all online. Designate The Community Foundation (and reference the new donor-advised fund if possible) as the grant recipient.
Your client may be able to grant the entire balance in one transaction. If not, most of the balance can be transferred to fund the new donor-advised fund, and you can work with your client to transfer the rest later.
Before closing the donor-advised fund at the national provider, your client should download grant history and contribution information for future reference and tax documentation. Note that transfers between donor-advised funds are tax-neutral; these transactions and not taxable events.
We look forward to working with you and your clients to make the most of their charitable giving, especially by establishing a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation to serve as the cornerstone of the client’s charitable giving plan. With a donor-advised fund as a baseline, your client can begin to tap into all of the many ways The Community Foundation serves as a home for charitable giving, from strategic grant making to legacy giving and everything in between.
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 Philanthropy Brief
The Philanthropy Brief: Insights for Trusted Advisors is designed specifically for professional advisors looking to deepen their understanding of charitable strategies, planned giving options, and the unique benefits of working with The Community Foundation.