Your clients (and you!) may still be recovering from a hectic end to 2024, but don’t let that stop you from helping families get a jump on their charitable planning for 2025.
As compelling as year-end giving may be, perhaps even more compelling are the reasons for planning and launching a charitable giving strategy early in the year. Benefits of a year-long giving strategy include:
- Helping nonprofit organizations meet their budgets all year long, which can save them from worrying as much about whether the needs of those they serve can be met.
- Leveraging employer matching gift programs early in the year when dollars are available and there is plenty of time to process the paperwork.
- Increasing predictability of cash flow and therefore being proactive, not reactive, in supporting the causes your clients love. Your clients might even consider setting up automatic contributions to a donor-advised or other type of fund to formalize this component as part of an ongoing plan.
- Taking advantage of plenty of time to learn more about the charities a client plans to support so that a client can be an even more informed and impactful donor, including fully utilizing a philanthropic partner’s expertise and resources.
- Giving the client (and you) time to include children and grandchildren in the charitable giving conversation and tax-planning structures as a learning experience for the whole family.
- If your client is over 70 ½, being able to avoid the year-end scramble to process a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from an IRA directly to an eligible charity, such as an unrestricted or field-of-interest fund at the Community Foundation, by executing a QCD early in the year. (The maximum QCD amount allowed in 2025 is $108,000 per taxpayer.)Leaving enough time to explore options for more complex giving techniques, such as gifts of closely-held business interests or charitable remainder trusts, that might provide tax benefits as well as meet a client’s charitable goals, rather than waiting until the last minute when it may be hard for everyone to coordinate calendars.
As always, the Community Foundation is here to help. Please reach out to our team to learn more about how your clients can make the biggest difference with their charitable dollars, and how the Community Foundation team can help you ensure that your clients are able to fully carry out their charitable wishes for 2025. You and your clients will both be glad you planned ahead to help favorite organizations fulfill their missions throughout the entire year, as well as maximizing tax benefits and avoiding December’s crunch time.
Going Further:
When it comes to charitable planning, beyond looking ahead, it’s helpful to dig deeper. The Community Foundation has knowledgeable staff, tools and resources available to help your clients develop a comprehensive giving strategy that aligns their values and interests with critical issues and impact. Following is a preview of just a few Community Foundation resources you can share with your clients to help them get more from their giving:
- Local Donors, Meet Local Data: CNY Vitals is our ‘state of the community’ website that provides a common source of data and interactive visualizations on critical topics that affect the health and progress of our region. It not only informs community members but also has been an essential resource to us as we identify needs and launch strategic initiatives to address them. Donors can learn more about local needs and ways to help spur positive community change by visiting https://www.cnyvitals.org/
- Crisis Response & Disaster Relief: During times of tragedy, our community responds with generosity. Donors often have questions about where and how to give, and we’re here to help. The Community Foundation maintains a disaster relief page with recommendations and guidelines for aiding those impacted by recent natural or human-generated disasters. Visit https://cnycf.org/give-to-the-community/disaster/ or contact us for more specific guidance about where to give in order to increase the effectiveness of relief donations.
- Helping Children Give: By fostering a generous spirit in our young people, we can make a difference in their lives and the community. Visit https://cnycf.org/give-to-the-community/when-to-give/helping-children-give/ for a series of activities, lesson plans and resources that will be useful to parents and mentors in sparking charitable giving conversations with children and teens and helping them to become engaged in charitable giving, volunteering and civic involvement.
Donor Spotlight: Couple Shares ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ — and Green
It took Harold L. Husovsky, M.D., and Susan E. Stred, M.D., just a few minutes to come up with a name for their donor-advised fund at the Central New York Community Foundation: Rhapsody in Green. “‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is my favorite composition ever, and George Gershwin my favorite composer,” said Stred, a lifelong singer. Husovsky loves Gershwin’s piece as well.
It didn’t take much longer for the DeWitt couple, whom are both retired physicians, to decide that a donor-advised fund perfectly suits their needs and for their philanthropy legacy. “I am not well-versed in economic affairs. But the logic sounded too good to be true, except it wasn’t,” Husovsky said. “It fit right into our lifestyle. It fit into our life plan.”
Husovsky and Stred, a retired internist and pediatric specialist at SUNY Upstate Medical University, started considering the fund a few years back after Husovsky attended a Community Foundation program about giving options. “It sounded like a good idea to facilitate annual giving to the same organization,” Husovsky said. “It just makes it easier. We did not have to write the checks. It was one less thing to do.”
The couple established their fund at the Community Foundation in 2013. When they pass away, the Community Foundation will disperse the remaining balance of their fund evenly among charities that reflect their charitable interests — including the Syracuse Orchestra, CNY Jazz Arts Foundation and On Point for College. They also have named the Community Foundation as a beneficiary in their wills to support our Community Fund, which supports the greatest needs of the Central New York Community Foundation.
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