Len Iaquinta's Blog

The Congress did us another favor.  The IRA Charitable Rollover provision was extended through 2009.  Some of the tax incentive was removed, but research shows that few donors are motivated primarily by tax consequences.  It’s your mission that moves them.

So what is your plan to get these gifts?  Recall the scenario.  The IRS says: A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is a nontaxable distribution made directly by the trustee of your IRA (other than a SEP or SIMPLE IRA) to an organization eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.

Your donor must be at least of age 70½ when the distribution is made.  You must acknowledge the gift just as you would for a conventional charitable contribution.  Your donor may give up to $100,000 in QCDs this year.  For joint returns, the spouse can also contribute the same amount.  In general, the distribution is not tax deductible.  Tax counsel should be used by the donor for IRS filing purposes.

Review your donor lists.  Look for past involved and/or consistent donors or volunteers who are past 70½ years old.  You are still keeping them close to you with frequent stewardship and agency result reports cast in human terms, aren’t you?  Then give them the news that they once again have a special opportunity to donate unneeded retirement assets to your charity and enjoy seeing the benefits to your community before their death.  (I’m confident that I’m enjoying my current charitable giving more than I will my estate gifts.)

Many organizations are not pursuing this source of gifts because they think it’s too complicated (wrong!) and because the tax benefits are non-existent or modest, depending on the donor’s situation.  So that opens the field for you.  Get out and connect with these mature seniors!  Give them the opportunity to enjoy current giving that was impossible before the QCD law. 

Retired professionals are especially good prospects, but don’t assume other past donors and volunteers lack excess retirement assets.  Be sure to brief your Board, committee members and all other volunteers.  You may be surprised by who can help, and by whom they know.

Len Iaquinta, a member of the Alliance for Children and Families’ Resource Development Advisory Commitee and Executive Consultant Select Group, is a career fundraiser of millions of dollars in major gifts, grants, and annual funds. He is recognized as a strategic and tactical thinker, often contributing to professional practice journals and presenting at professional meetings. He has created successful fundraising programs at public and private institutions from New York City to Milwaukee and Chicago. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from Northwestern University (Medill School) and Columbia University in the City of New York (Pulitzer School), respectively.

Len is president of Excellence in Communications Inc.