April 2026 Professional Advisor News

As you work with charitable clients during periods of market uncertainty, you may notice that even the possibility of a downturn can influence decision-making. Conversations often shift from long-term projections to shorter-term concerns, and clients may hesitate when it comes to charitable giving. As a trusted advisor, you can help clients stay focused and thoughtful by reinforcing a few key principles and identifying planning opportunities that remain effective in any market environment.

Here is a checklist to guide your conversations.

Acknowledge the emotional side of market volatility.
Even financially secure clients can feel uneasy when markets fluctuate. Trends show that financial uncertainty affects emotional well-being, and those feelings can influence decision-making. Creating space for clients to express concerns is an important first step in helping them move forward with clarity and confidence.

Remind clients that not all assets are affected equally.
A down market does not mean all holdings have declined. Many clients still hold highly appreciated assets, especially positions accumulated over long periods. This creates an opportunity to revisit one of the most effective charitable giving strategies: contributing appreciated stock.

Highlight the benefits of giving appreciated assets.
Gifts of long-term appreciated securities to a fund at GiveWell Community Foundation can allow clients to avoid capital gains tax while supporting the causes they care about. This strategy can remain effective regardless of market conditions and can be especially meaningful when clients are looking for tax-efficient ways to give.

Encourage flexibility through donor-advised funds.
Establishing or contributing to a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation allows clients to separate the timing of the tax deduction from the timing of grantmaking. This can be particularly appealing during uncertain periods, giving clients the ability to make a gift now and recommend grants over time as they gain more clarity.

Discuss increased community needs.
Economic strain often increases demand for nonprofit services, particularly for households already feeling the effects of inflation and rising costs. The Community Foundation can provide insight into the most pressing needs in our region and help your clients direct support where it can make the greatest difference.

Don’t overlook Qualified Charitable Distributions.
For clients age 70 ½ and older, Qualified Charitable Distributions remain a powerful tool. QCDs can be used to satisfy required minimum distributions while potentially avoiding income tax on those amounts, making them an attractive option regardless of market performance. The Community Foundation can help ensure these gifts are directed to eligible funds aligned with your client’s charitable priorities.

On another positive note, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has introduced the IRA Charitable Rollover Facilitation and Enhancement Act to expand charitable giving options for older Americans. If enacted, the bill would allow Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) from IRAs to be directed to donor-advised funds, removing a current restriction that limits flexibility for donors who want to support multiple charities through a single giving vehicle.

Reinforce a long-term perspective.
Market cycles are a natural part of investing, and many philanthropic clients are motivated by long-term impact rather than short-term conditions. Encouraging clients to stay focused on their values and goals can help maintain consistency in their giving, even when headlines are unsettling.

Lean on GiveWell Community Foundation.
Our team is here to help you navigate these conversations. We can provide up-to-date information on community needs, offer ideas for structuring gifts, and work with you and your clients to develop flexible, tax-efficient charitable strategies. Whether your client is ready to act now or simply needs reassurance, we are honored to support your efforts.

We are here to help you and your clients make a meaningful difference in every type of market environment.

As a professional advisor, you’ve no doubt noticed that coverage of donor-advised funds in financial publications continues to grow. That attention is well-deserved. These vehicles are increasingly recognized as powerful tools to help your clients align their financial planning with their charitable goals.

What is sometimes less obvious, however, is that a fund at GiveWell Community Foundation can serve as far more than a single tool. In many cases, it becomes the central hub of a client’s overall charitable giving “portfolio”—bringing structure, flexibility, and deeper community engagement together in one place.

Here are a few ways to frame this concept in your client conversations.

A central point for organizing giving
At its core, a donor-advised fund provides a streamlined way for clients to contribute a variety of assets—cash, appreciated stock, and other property—while maintaining flexibility in the timing of grants to nonprofits. This structure can be especially useful when clients are navigating changing tax rules or considering strategies such as “bunching” contributions in higher-income years. Establishing a fund creates an immediate charitable vehicle that can support giving over time, rather than requiring clients to make one-off decisions each year.

Access to a broader set of charitable tools
A donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation is often the entry point, not the endpoint. As clients’ needs evolve, our professional staff can introduce additional giving strategies and vehicles that complement the fund. This allows you to build a more comprehensive approach without requiring clients to manage multiple disconnected structures.

Deeper connection to community impact
One of the most valuable aspects of working with the Community Foundation is access to local knowledge. Our team maintains close relationships with nonprofit organizations and stays current on emerging needs across the region. This insight can help your clients move beyond transactional giving and toward more informed, intentional philanthropy.

Flexibility across multiple fund types
In addition to donor-advised funds, the Community Foundation offers a range of options that can work together within a single charitable plan. Clients may choose to support specific organizations through a designated fund, focus on particular causes through a field-of-interest fund, or rely on unrestricted funds to address the community’s most pressing needs as they evolve.

Incorporating tax-efficient distribution strategies
For clients age 70 ½ and older, Qualified Charitable Distributions can play an important role. While QCDs cannot be directed to donor-advised funds (at least not yet), they can be used to support other types of funds at the Community Foundation, allowing clients to reduce taxable income while continuing to advance their charitable priorities.

Supporting long-term and legacy planning
A fund at the Community Foundation can also serve as a cornerstone of a client’s legacy strategy. Whether through provisions in a will or trust, or through beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, clients can extend their charitable impact well beyond their lifetimes. The Community Foundation provides ongoing stewardship to ensure those intentions are carried out in a way that remains relevant over time.

When viewed through this broader lens, the role of the Community Foundation becomes clear. Rather than simply offering a single giving vehicle, we can can serve as a flexible, enduring hub for a charitable planning portfolio—helping you and your clients build a strategy that can adapt alongside changing tax laws, market conditions, and community needs.

As always, we are honored to work with you to support your clients’ charitable goals.

As tax laws and market dynamics continue to shift, it is important for professional advisors to be aware of two increasingly distinct groups of donors. On one hand, the high federal estate tax exemption and new restrictions on itemizing charitable deductions are creating unique needs for your clients whose assets exceed $30 million. On the other hand, the new charitable deduction for non-itemizers offers an entry point and incentive for your clients who are just starting out in their careers or still building wealth.

Recent research underscores just how pronounced this divide is becoming. Individuals with a net worth of $30 million or more—often referred to as ultra-high-net-worth donors—are playing an increasingly outsized role in philanthropy, accounting for a significant and growing share of total charitable giving. At the same time, policy changes are encouraging broader participation at the other end of the spectrum, bringing new donors into the fold even if their initial gifts are modest. The result is a philanthropic landscape that is simultaneously becoming more concentrated and more expansive.

For your ultra-high-net-worth clients, charitable giving is rarely about a single transaction. Instead, it is often deeply integrated into long-term planning around wealth transfer, business succession, and family legacy. These clients may be evaluating complex assets, timing considerations, and multigenerational involvement. Conversations tend to focus on strategy—how philanthropy aligns with identity, values, and long-term impact. GiveWell Community Foundation can help you navigate these discussions by offering flexible structures, local insight, and support for engaging the next generation in meaningful ways.

By contrast, clients earlier in their wealth-building years, including the children and grandchildren of ultra-high-net-worth clients, may be engaging with charitable giving in a more incremental and exploratory way. The availability of a charitable deduction for non-itemizers creates a new opportunity to introduce philanthropy as part of their financial lives sooner than in the past. For these clients, the focus is often on establishing habits, identifying causes, and understanding how giving fits alongside other priorities. Even relatively small gifts can serve as the foundation for lifelong philanthropic engagement. (Note that the new deduction for non-itemizers applies only to cash gifts and is not available for gifts to donor-advised funds.)

These two groups are not just separated by wealth, they are operating under different incentives, different planning horizons, and different motivations. As a trusted advisor, recognizing these distinctions can help you tailor your conversations and add value in more meaningful ways. Some clients may benefit from sophisticated planning strategies, while others simply need a clear and accessible entry point.

Here is one final but important point: Regardless of whether a client itemizes or doesn’t itemize, pay close attention to clients who are age 70 ½ and over and who own IRAs. Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) are a powerful and tax-advantaged tool for clients to transfer up to $111,000 per taxpayer (2026 limit) to support favorite causes. What’s more, proposed legislation may open the door for your clients to use QCDs to fund their donor-advised funds at the Community Foundation. Right now, clients can use QCDs to fund field-of-interest, designated funds, and certain other types of funds at the Community Foundation, but not donor-advised funds.

As always, our professional staff is here to support both ends of this spectrum. Whether your client is structuring a complex gift involving closely held assets or taking the first steps toward organized charitable giving, our team can help you identify the right approach. We are honored to be your partner in serving your charitable clients across every stage of their philanthropy journey.

As you work with clients who have established a private foundation, it is not uncommon for the conversation to eventually turn to whether this structure still makes sense. What began as a seemingly logical vehicle for organizing a family’s philanthropy can, over time, become administratively burdensome, especially as leadership transitions to the next generation. In many cases, transferring a private foundation’s assets to a donor-advised fund at GiveWell Community Foundation can offer a simpler and more flexible path forward.

You may already be familiar with the general benfits of a donor-advised fund. A donor-advised fund can reduce administrative responsibilities, eliminate many of the complex tax compliance requirements, and allow families to focus more fully on their charitable goals rather than ongoing operations. The technical mechanics of making the transition are also relatively straightforward, such as:

• Confirm that the private foundation’s board has approved the termination and documented the decision appropriately.

• Establish a donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation, often structured to mirror the private foundation’s name and governance approach.

• Grant the bulk of the private foundation’s remaining assets to the new fund, leaving a reserve to cover final expenses.

• Satisfy outstanding liabilities and complete the private foundation’s final tax filings and state-level dissolution requirements.

While these steps are important, the transition is ultimately about more than mechanics. It is an opportunity to reposition the family’s philanthropy for the future—reducing administrative friction while preserving, and in many cases enhancing, the impact of the family’s giving.

One aspect of the transition deserves particular attention because it is easy to overlook: communication with grantees. For many private foundations, relationships with nonprofit organizations have developed over years—sometimes decades. In some cases, grantees may rely on annual or recurring support.

When a private foundation winds down, a lack of clear communication can create confusion or uncertainty for the organizations that have come to depend on that funding. As a trusted advisor, you can play an important role in helping your client plan for this transition thoughtfully. What’s more, the professional staff at the Community Foundation can serve as a sounding board. Our team has close relationships with hundreds of nonprofit organizations in our community. Here are five tips for a client’s communication plan that you can help develop with the support of the Community Foundation team:

• Encourage your client to communicate early and clearly with key grantees. Your client does not want nonprofits to hear about the transition from anyone else.

• The communication itself does not need to be complicated. A straightforward email message explaining that the private foundation is transitioning to a donor-advised fund—and that the family remains committed to charitable giving—can go a long way.

• Importantly, if possible, the client should reach out personally to each nonprofit grantee to let them know that they will be receiving email communication. This is not just a nice touch; it is a powerful way to maintain and deepen trust.

• If the client intends to continue supporting certain organizations, it is helpful to reassure those nonprofits that future grants may be recommended through the Community Foundation.

• Messages can also affirm the mission of the Community Foundation and the broader resources and network it provides to both your clients and the nonprofits they’ve supported for many years.

As always, the Community Foundation is here to help you and your clients navigate both the technical and relational aspects of this process. Whether your client is ready to move forward now or simply beginning to explore options, our team is honored to work alongside you to ensure a smooth and thoughtful transition to support your clients’ charitable objectives.