Study lays out tax policy options that could increase charitable giving

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30645
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Date: 01 September 2019

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Vol. 360 September 2019

Study lays out tax policy options that could

increase charitable giving

New research from the Independent Sector shows

that a few small but important tweaks to the federal

tax code could bring in billions of dollars in ad-

ditional charitable donations compared to current

law—mainly by expanding the number of households

that have a nancial incentive to donate.

As noted by the IS, the U.S. tax code provides in-

centives for Americans to donate to charity by allow-

ing taxpayers to deduct their charitable gifts on their

tax returns. However, the charitable deduction is only

available to those who itemize on their taxes—which

accounts for just about 10% of taxpayers. The orga-

nization—working with the Lilly Family School of

Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Wharton

School of Business at the University of Pennsylva-

nia—set out to quantify the impacts of expanding the

number of households that received tax advantages by

donating to charity. Specically, the groups analyzed

the estimated impact of ve policy proposals that

Also in this issue

Conferences and Events: 2019 Tech Forward

Conference; the ADRP 16th Annual International

Conference; the Exponent Philanthropy 2019

CONNECT Conference; and the ILA 2019 Annual

Conference ................................... 4

Regulatory News: New law requires mandatory

electronic ling of Form 990 .....................5

Industry News: Research shows small businesses

deeply involved in community investment ...........6

Nonprot Research: Survey sheds light on giving

habits of U.S. college grads ...................... 7

Fidelity Charitable reports record-high DAF grants

for rst half of 2019 ............................7

Resources: Webinar gives tips on peer-to-peer

fundraising; Webinar looks at fundraising

metrics; Foundation Center webinar focuses on

#GivingTuesday campaigns ......................9

Employment Law: Legal cases that impact nonprots . 10

News: Briefs from around the sector .............. 12

Grants concentrated

in few states

A new report from Fluxx, a grants management

software rm, shows that the bulk of foundation

grants are concentrated in a handful of states and

cities, and by a large margin, with nearly half of

all foundation grants made through the company’s

platform going to just the top three recipient locales—

New York, California and Washington, D.C.

According to the report, State of Giving,

Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts,

Oregon, Colorado and Maryland round out the

top 10 states and cities for foundation dollars. In

all, nonprot recipients in these areas received

nearly $2.63 billion, or 73% of the total processed

through Fluxx, compared with $29.3 million, or

0.82% of the total, for the bottom 10 states and

territories—New Hampshire, Hawaii, Delaware,

Idaho, South Carolina, Wyoming, Minnesota,

Nebraska, West Virginia and Puerto Rico.

The report also notes the most popular program

areas funded in the top 10 states. For example,

nearly half of foundation grant dollars in the

top 10 went to education (45%), followed by the

environment (17%), philanthropy (13%), arts and

culture (9%) and community improvement (7%).

In comparison, in the bottom 10 states/

territories, 50% of the grant dollars awarded went

to housing and shelter, followed by education (9%),

foreign affairs (9%), youth development (8%) and

health care (8%).

To read the report in full, visit https://bit.

ly/2yncIAw. ■

(See POLICY on page 2)

incentivize charitable giving among nonitemizers:

• offering a deduction identical to the itemizers’

tax incentive;

• offering a deduction with a cap in which gifts