As you prepare to gather with family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday, we invite you to reach out to the team at the FM Area Foundation for suggestions on how to incorporate charitable giving into the festivities.
For example:
–Take this opportunity to brush up on the rich history of charitable giving in America.
–Consider asking each family member to conduct quick research on a community need that they feel strongly about, such as homelessness, early childhood education, preserving the environment, medical research, and so on. Even just 15 minutes of online research on how the issue is playing out locally can be eye-opening!
–When your family is together, each person can briefly share what they found in their research. If the group feels strongly about one or two issues, you might consider pooling donations–whether $5 per person or $50.
–Contact the FM Area Foundation to find out which nonprofit organizations in the community are most closely aligned with addressing the issues you’ve selected. Make your family donation to those organizations.
Thanksgiving is also a good time to start planning for year-end charitable giving to meet your philanthropic goals.
For instance:
–Making gifts of cash or appreciated stock to your donor-advised fund at the FM Area Foundation can help you streamline your charitable giving recordkeeping and still allow you to support your favorite charities with year-end gifts. If you’ve not yet established a fund at the FM Area Foundation, we’d love to help you set that up. There is still plenty of time to put it in place to meet your year-end tax planning and charitable giving needs.
–If you are over the age of 70 ½, consider making a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA to one or more qualifying charities, which include an unrestricted or field-of-interest fund at the community foundation. QCDs, available up to $100,000 annually per taxpayer, are an excellent way to bypass required minimum distributions and the corresponding income tax liability.
–Many families update their estate plans around the holidays. If you’re planning to review your wills and trusts, it’s a great time to check in on any bequests and adjust those provisions, especially if you’ve recently established a donor-advised or other type of fund at the FM Area Foundation and intend for part of your estate to flow into those vehicles.
As always, please contact the FM Area Foundation for charitable giving inspiration and insights. We are here to help!
“
