December 2025 Professional Advisor News

It’s down to the wire! By now you’re of course aware that 2025 is a crucial year to act on charitable planning before changes in the tax laws take effect in 2026, especially for clients who itemize deductions. Take advantage of the remaining window of opportunity to advise your clients, and lean on the Community Foundation to help set up donor-advised funds and other charitable giving structures.

As you counsel clients through year-end tax planning, the Community Foundation encourages you to remind them that 2025 presents a critical window of opportunity for charitable giving before major provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) take effect on January 1, 2026. The new law could significantly reshape the tax treatment of charitable contributions in ways that may reduce the tax value of gifts made after this year. 

Here are three things you need to know:

• Beginning with the 2026 tax year, clients who itemize will face a new 0.5% of adjusted gross income floor for charitable deductions, meaning that only the portion of their giving that exceeds that threshold will be deductible. In addition, high-income clients will see the value of their deductions capped at 35 cents on the dollar, even if they are in a higher marginal tax bracket. 
• Your clients may be aware of another new law effective in 2026 allowing taxpayers who take the standard deduction to claim a modest “above-the-line” charitable deduction—up to $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. While helpful, this limited deduction provides far less benefit than itemizing under current rules. 
• Because of upcoming changes, 2025 is shaping up to be an especially important year for charitable planning. Your clients who itemize their deductions may benefit from “accelerating” or “bunching” contributions into their donor-advised funds at the Community Foundation this year to take full advantage of the current, more favorable rules. 

Here are two bonus “must-knows”: 

• The OBBBA did not change the rules for Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs), which continue to allow individuals aged 70½ or older to give up to $108,000 in 2025 directly from an IRA to an eligible nonprofit organization, bypassing taxable income and counting toward required minimum distributions (if applicable). Certain types of funds at the Community Foundation, such as designated funds, unrestricted funds, field-of-interest funds, and nonprofit agency funds (but not donor-advised funds), may receive QCDs.
• Because a QCD reduces adjusted gross income rather than functioning as an itemized deduction, it will remain unaffected by the OBBBA’s new 0.5% AGI floor and the 35% cap that will apply to itemized charitable deductions starting in 2026. As a result, QCDs may become even more valuable next year, offering a tax-efficient charitable giving option at a time when traditional deductions will be more limited for some of your clients. 

Our professional staff at the Community Foundation are here to support you as you help clients navigate these shifting rules. We are happy to serve as a resource for evaluating giving strategies, structuring multi-year plans, and helping clients use tools such as donor-advised funds, designated funds, or field-of-interest funds to make the most of their 2025 contributions. Please reach out as soon as you can. We are honored to collaborate with you in serving your charitably-minded clients to achieve year-end giving goals. 

Retaining clients is a cornerstone of long-term business success, no matter the profession or industry. As the saying goes, keeping an existing client—and earning additional work from that client—is far easier and more cost-effective than securing a new client. For professionals who work in estate, tax, and financial planning, this principle becomes especially important during one of the most delicate stages of engagement: the period following a client’s death.

Attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors know quite well that after a client passes away, many planning strategies are set in motion and, simultaneously, emotions run high and families are adjusting to loss. This combination can make it challenging to transition relationships to the next generation. The statistics underscore just how steep this challenge can be. Indeed, some sources indicate that fewer than 20% of heirs continue working with their parents’ advisor after inheriting assets.

The answer, of course, is to build relationships with the client’s children long before the estate becomes active. Advisors can employ many thoughtful methods—inviting children to appropriate meetings, sending personal notes, or offering career guidance. Yet few topics open the door quite as meaningfully as philanthropy. For most families, inheritances represent more than financial transfers; they embody values, purpose, and the story of how the family built its resources. Conversations about charitable giving naturally lead to discussions about legacy, priorities, and shared commitments across generations.

This is where the Community Foundation can be especially valuable. Our professional staff helps advisors create opportunities for clients and their children to explore philanthropy together. You can encourage families to establish simple, effective giving vehicles through the Community Foundation—such as a donor-advised fund, designated fund, or field-of-interest fund—that make charitable participation accessible to every generation. You can also connect them with our family-focused services, including research on favorite causes, curated site visits to local nonprofits, and educational conversations about community needs and charitable giving strategies.

What’s more, estate planning and wealth advisors frequently ask us to facilitate family discussions so younger generations can understand and carry forward the causes their parents and grandparents have long supported, while also identifying new areas that reflect their own interests or values. These conversations are powerful. They deepen family identity, strengthen intergenerational ties, and help advisors stay connected to the entire family for years to come.

Any thoughtful engagement with a client’s next generation improves the chances of maintaining the relationship across transitions. But philanthropy, in particular, provides a uniquely meaningful avenue to build trust, spark conversation, and ensure continuity—keeping your clients’ families engaged with you long after wealth transfers from one generation to the next.

Please reach out anytime! We look forward to helping you keep your clients for many years to come.

Across the country, donor-advised funds have become one of the most effective ways for individuals and families to manage their charitable giving. Yet what we often find in conversations with estate planning attorneys, wealth advisors, and CPAs is that many clients (and even some advisors) do not realize they already have access to a more personal, more connected version of this tool locally, at the Community Foundation. 

Consider the situation of a hypothetical client, Debbie Jones, who had established a donor-advised fund at a national financial institution simply because it was the default option presented when she opened her investment accounts. Debbie enjoyed supporting her favorite nonprofit organizations, involving her grandchildren in giving decisions, and maintaining the administrative simplicity of a donor-advised fund. What she did not know, however, was that the same benefits—and more—were available right here in her own backyard, through the Community Foundation, where she had once served on a committee and even attended events in the past.

During a routine review with her advisor, Debbie mentioned a desire to “feel more connected” to the impact of her giving and to better understand the needs of the community she cared about. Her advisor reached out to the Community Foundation to explore whether her donor-advised fund could be handled locally. Debbie was surprised to learn how seamless the process could be and how little would change in terms of administration. She would still enjoy all the features she valued: online access to view balances, contributions, and grants; an easy process for recommending gifts; consolidated tax reporting; comprehensive administrative support; and the same favorable deductibility limits for contributions of cash, stock, or other assets. Nothing became more complex from a tax or compliance standpoint.

The difference emerged in the level of service and connection. As soon as the new donor-advised fund was established at the Community Foundation, Debbie began working with staff members who understood the region, its nonprofits, and its evolving challenges.

What’s more, as Debbie’s grandchildren became more interested in participating in family philanthropy, the Community Foundation facilitated conversations about values, legacy, and long-term charitable intent. The Community Foundation also provided Debbie with thoughtful research on nonprofits working in the areas she cared about most, along with information on projects and programs that deepened her understanding of community issues. In addition, Debbie appreciated that the administrative fees associated with her fund were reinvested locally, strengthening the very community she wished to support.

For Debbie’s advisor, the transition was straightforward. Working with the Community Foundation, it was easy to create a new donor-advised fund agreement that closely mirrored the terms of Debbie’s original fund, even incorporating updated successor provisions and designations. Debbie then recommended a grant from her national donor-advised fund sponsor to the Community Foundation to fund the new donor-advised fund. Because transfers between donor-advised funds are tax-neutral, no income was recognized and no new charitable deduction was generated. The full balance was transferred in a single transaction and, before closing the original account, her advisor helped Debbie download past grant and contribution histories to ensure her records remained complete.

In the end, Debbie gained much more than a new location for her donor-advised fund—she gained a philanthropic partner. Debbie now receives the guidance, insight, and personal connection she had been seeking. Her advisor enjoys a collaborative relationship with the Community Foundation, ensuring that Debbie’s charitable plan aligns with her overall goals. And the community benefits from a donor who is more engaged, better informed, and more connected to the organizations she supports.

This hypothetical scenario illustrates what happens when advisors and the Community Foundation work together to support clients like Debbie Jones. By transferring donor-advised funds to the Community Foundation, clients gain more than administrative convenience—they gain a meaningful, strategic philanthropic experience. If you have clients like Debbie Jones—or any clients seeking deeper purpose, more tailored support, or a closer connection to their community— please reach out anytime!