The new year provides a perfect time to create some goals and build a plan to achieve them. It may be cliche to talk about resolutions this time of year, but January definitely presents a clean slate for “to-do” lists, goals, and your overall mindset.
As you think about your 2024 charitable giving goals and priorities, here are a few items to consider:
You may find that you have more capacity to give to charity this year.
The IRS issued inflation adjustments for important thresholds such as the standard deduction, Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, annual exclusion gifts, Required Minimum Distributions, Qualified Charitable Distributions, and levels of income for each tax bracket. Talk with your trusted advisors about how these adjustments might impact your charitable giving goals–or even create opportunities for you to do more to support your favorite causes.
You may get a charitable deduction even if you do not itemize.
The Charitable Act, if passed, would allow even non-itemizers to deduct certain charitable gifts on their income tax returns. Supporters suggest that the Act incentivizes giving from a broader range of Americans, increasing the number of smaller donations to charities.
You’ll probably still receive requests to fund disaster relief efforts.
Disaster giving is likely to remain high on the fundraising radar, meaning you will likely continue to get requests for donations to support disaster-related causes. As always, please reach out to organizations like The Community Foundation of Frederick County to strategize about effective deployment of your charitable dollars to help people who need it most in the wake of disasters and humanitarian crises.
This is a good time to review your estate plan.
The beginning of the year is an excellent time to make sure your estate plan is in order. Many people scramble at the end of the year to execute tax planning transactions, which is understandable, but this often leaves little time for a thoughtful, strategic evaluation of the various components that make up a comprehensive estate plan, including financial planning, retirement planning, tax planning, investments and wealth management, business succession planning, planning for disability, evaluating wills and trusts as children get older and needs change, and, of course, charitable planning.
Reach out to the team at the Community Foundation as you work with your advisors to evaluate and strategize in 2024. We’re here to help ensure that you achieve your charitable giving goals in the most tax-savvy and impact-minded way possible so that you can continue to support the causes you care about the most.
This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.