About Qualified Charitable Deductions (QCDs)

(September 2026) As you counsel charitable clients who are age 70 ½ or older, it is crucial to consider a tool called the Qualified Charitable Distribution, or QCD. You’re likely aware that a QCD allows an individual who is age 70 ½ and older to give up to $111,000 in 2026 directly from an IRA to an eligible charity, including certain types of funds at GiveWell Community Foundation. The QCD is a tax-savvy way for clients to fulfill charitable intentions while managing taxable income.

New legislation in Congress could expand charitable planning opportunities involving QCDs even further. To get up to speed quickly, I encourage you to skim through six FAQs about developments affecting charitable giving from retirement accounts.

What’s the latest pending legislation?
Bipartisan legislation known as the Charity Parity Act was introduced in both the House and Senate in May 2026. If enacted, the new law would allow individuals who are age 70 ½ and older to make QCDs directly from employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) accounts, in addition to IRAs.

Why is this legislation noteworthy?
Under current law, Qualified Charitable Distributions are available only from IRAs, meaning that many individuals must first roll assets from an employer-sponsored plan into an IRA before making a QCD that is excluded from taxable income. According to the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), the legislation is designed to create parity between IRAs and workplace retirement plans while reducing administrative hurdles that may discourage charitable giving.

Why should I pay attention to this legislation?
As professional advisors, you likely have many clients age 70 ½ and older who own retirement assets well beyond their IRAs. The proposed legislation could make charitable giving easier for these clients. Today, a client whose retirement assets remain in a 401(k) or 403(b) must typically complete a rollover before taking advantage of QCD rules. The Charity Parity Act would remove the need for that rollover in many cases, potentially reducing paperwork, fees, delays, and administrative complexity.

How can the Community Foundation help?
The Community Foundation can help your clients use retirement assets to create lasting community impact. For example, a client interested in supporting a particular area of need could direct QCDs to a field-of-interest fund focused on causes such as education, health care, the arts, or the environment. Alternatively, clients who wish to support specific charitable organizations over time might consider a designated fund. In each case, the Community Foundation can help structure a charitable fund that aligns with the client’s philanthropic goals while creating a lasting charitable legacy. This fund, in turn, can receive QCDs from IRAs and, if the proposed legislation becomes law, from other eligible retirement plans. (Note that current law does not permit a donor to direct QCDs to a donor-advised fund.)

What should I be doing right now?
The most important step is to identify clients age 70 ½ or older who have both charitable intent and significant retirement assets. Many clients are familiar with Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) but are less aware of charitable planning opportunities involving retirement accounts. Whether or not the Charity Parity Act ultimately becomes law, conversations about QCDs, beneficiary designations, and other retirement-based giving strategies can help align clients’ financial plans with their values. You can certainly let clients know that new legislation may expand QCD opportunities beyond just IRAs.

Is there other legislation I need to be aware of?
Yes! H.R. 2891, the IRA Charitable Rollover Facilitation and Enhancement Act of 2025, is a still-pending bipartisan bill that has been introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate. If enacted, the new law would allow QCDs to be made to donor-advised funds. For now, QCDs still cannot be directed to donor-advised funds, although many organizations in the charitable sector continue to advocate for this change.

As always, the Community Foundation is happy to work alongside professional advisors to evaluate charitable planning opportunities involving retirement assets and to help your clients create charitable funds that will support their favorite causes for years to come.

(July 2026) For many estate planning, tax, and financial advisors, the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is a familiar planning tool: A client age 70½ or older directs a distribution from an eligible IRA to a qualified charity, potentially satisfying all or part of a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) while excluding the QCD amount from taxable income.

Even if you regularly advise and assist your clients with QCDs, you may not know that a QCD can also present an opportunity for a client to establish certain types of charitable funds at the Community Foundation that align with their legacy goals. Under current law, QCDs cannot be made to donor-advised funds, which can sometimes lead advisors and clients to conclude that a QCD cannot be used to establish any type of fund at a Community Foundation. Fortunately, that is not the case. In fact, with so many of our donors now in the QCD age bracket, helping them use their IRAs as part of their charitable legacy plans has become an increasingly common part of the work we do.

Here are three fund types at the Community Foundation that generally can receive QCDs if they are structured properly:

Designated fund
A designated fund can provide ongoing support for one (or a few) charitable organizations selected by the donor at the time the fund is established. For example, a client who has faithfully supported a favorite church, food bank, animal shelter, or other nonprofit for decades could use a QCD to establish a fund designed to continue that support over time.  Some clients may be interested in learning more about nonprofits in our community that provide support for causes they feel passionate about supporting. The Community Foundation is happy to offer informational resources and, most of all, we are always open to conversation.

Field-of-interest fund
A field-of-interest fund can support a broader charitable priority rather than a particular organization. For example, a client might establish a fund focused on early childhood education, the environment, the arts, services for older adults, or another area that has been meaningful throughout the client’s life. The Community Foundation then uses the fund to provide charitable support in accordance with the intent of the donor.

Unrestricted fund
An unrestricted fund can offer clients perhaps the broadest community impact. Rather than identifying particular organizations or causes, the client entrusts the Community Foundation to use the fund to respond to changing community needs and opportunities over time.

And there are two more pieces of good news:

• Remember that eligibility for QCDs begins at age 70½, earlier than the typical starting age for RMDs, which for many people is 73. This creates a planning window when QCDs may be useful even for clients who are not yet required to take distributions. For 2026, the inflation-adjusted QCD limit is $111,000 per individual—that’s a tremendous opportunity for impact.
• The SECURE 2.0 Act created a one-time opportunity that is sometimes referred to as the “Legacy IRA” provision. It allows an eligible IRA owner who is 70½ or older to make a one-time QCD to certain split-interest arrangements, subject to an inflation-adjusted statutory limit ($55,000 in 2026) and other requirements. Those arrangements can include certain types of charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) or charitable gift annuities (CGAs). The rules are quite specific, and the arrangement must meet statutory requirements. In practice, a CGA may be the more approachable option for some clients given the $55,000 limit and the additional administrative requirements associated with establishing and maintaining a CRT.

As you work with charitable clients who are age 70½ and older and own IRAs, please reach out! Our professional staff at the Community Foundation is happy to help structure a fund or funds to accomplish each client’s charitable goals.

(June 2026) You’ve no doubt noticed that Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) continue to gain traction as one of the most practical and effective charitable planning tools for clients over age 70 ½. By allowing eligible clients to transfer funds directly from an IRA to a qualified charity without recognizing the distribution as taxable income, QCDs can help reduce adjusted gross income while supporting charitable priorities. For many clients—especially those who do not itemize deductions—a QCD is particularly appealing.

What’s especially notable is that in recent years, Congress has expanded planning opportunities by indexing annual giving limits for inflation ($111,000 per person in 2026) and allowing certain one-time QCDs (such as Legacy IRAs) to fund charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts. And now, proposed legislation known as the “Charity Parity Act” would, if enacted, extend QCD treatment beyond IRAs to include employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457(b)s. This potential change in the law would remove the extra step of rolling assets into an IRA before making a charitable gift, simplifying the process for many donors whose retirement savings remain primarily in workplace plans.

Consider a typical client scenario. Your client, age 74, is taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from a traditional IRA. Because the client claims the standard deduction, charitable gifts do not generate additional tax savings. By instead directing a portion of the RMD to a qualified charitable organization as a QCD, the client can satisfy part or all of the RMD obligation without increasing taxable income. In many cases, this can also help reduce Medicare premium surcharges and lessen the taxation of Social Security benefits, creating planning advantages beyond the charitable deduction itself.

Here are three examples of how the Community Foundation can help your client achieve charitable goals through QCDs:

• A client uses a QCD to contribute to a field-of-interest fund at GiveWell Community Foundation focused on causes such as education, healthcare, the arts, or environmental conservation. This allows the client to support a specific area of passion while relying on the Community Foundation’s expertise to identify effective nonprofit organizations over time.
• A client makes a QCD to a designated fund held at the Community Foundation. For example, the client may support favorite local nonprofits through a designated fund all while reducing taxable income through a QCD.
• A client directs a QCD from an IRA to the Community Foundation’s Now & Forever Fund to support broad community needs as identified through the United Community Indicators data. The client satisfies part or all of the client’s annual RMD requirements while supporting flexible grantmaking that addresses changing priorities in the region.

Keep in mind that charitable giving with IRAs goes beyond current gifts to nonprofit organizations! As part of advising clients about their IRAs, be sure to check their beneficiary designations. Not only is it tax advantageous for a client to name a fund at the Community Foundation or other public charity as beneficiary of an IRA, but it’s also a best practice to avoid problems in the future. (Retirement plan beneficiary designations continue to show up in cautionary tales!)

For professional advisors, developments related to QCDs are worth watching closely. QCDs increasingly serve as a natural connector among retirement planning, philanthropy, and legacy conversations. Just as importantly, QCD discussions often open the door to broader planning opportunities, helping clients align financial goals with the causes and communities they care about most.