Greetings Friend,

Happy Community Foundation Week! Just as you play a vital role in your local community, we’re grateful for your contributions to our Council community. Here are three things that we wanted to make sure are on your radar as we head towards the end of 2023:  

Proposed new IRS DAF rules: As you may have seen, the IRS released proposed rules for donor-advised funds (DAFs) this week. The proposed regulations clarify definitions around DAFs, address excise taxes on taxable distributions made by a sponsoring organization from a DAF, and discuss rules around scholarships. Join us for a webinar on November 30 to discuss these changes and hear from our Government Affairs and Legal team on how they might impact your foundation. 

2023 Council Award Winners: We announced the 2023 Council Award winners at today’s annual member meeting, including the Chicago Community Trust for its We Rise Together funder’s collaborative that works with community members to build thriving local economies in Black and Latinx neighborhoods. If you’re looking to build capacity and skills to undertake similar initiatives at your foundation, register for Community Foundation Excellence (CFE) Fundamentals on Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 6-7, our final community foundation training of the year. 

Our new 2024 convening: Yesterday we announced Building Together, a new immersive learning experience for philanthropic leaders who want to bridge differences and counteract toxic polarization. We are grateful for the expertise of community foundation leaders in our working group and hope to see you in Chicago on May 6-9, 2024. Registration is now open!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break! 

Best,

Natalie Ross
Vice President of Membership, Development, and Finance
natalie.ross@cof.org

Upcoming Events

CF Insights: Office Hours

November 17 | Virtual | CF Insights

SDG Learning Circle for Foundations

November 28 | Virtual | Peer Discussion

Community Foundation Excellence (CFE) Fundamentals

November 29-30 & December 6-7 | Virtual | Training

Digesting Proposed DAF Regulations

November 30 | Virtual | Webinar

New Executive Leaders Roundtable

December 4 | Virtual | Peer Discussion

DEI Roundtable: Charting a Path Toward Inclusion

December 12 | Virtual | DEI Roundtable

National Standards Monthly Zoom Session

December 13 | Virtual | Conversation

New Member Spotlight

Welcome to the community foundations that have joined as new Council members since our last newsletter! We're excited to have Ashland County Community Foundation, Cattaragus Region Community Foundation, Charitable Foundation of the Islands, Communities Foundation Oklahoma, Community Foundation East Mississippi, Devils Lake Area Foundation, Lake County Community Foundation, and Medina County Community Foundation as new members.

Resources You Can Use

Legal Question of the Month with Ben McDearmon, Director of Legal Resources

Question: We had a fund advisor ask whether it is permissible for a designated fund to support a DAF as part of its set distributions. Is that allowed, and would it matter that the donors/advisors are the same for both the designated fund and the DAF?

Answer: Technically yes, we aren’t aware of any legal reason a designated fund couldn’t be set up to benefit a DAF, although it isn’t a common practice.

However, one potential area of concern is if it appeared a donor were trying to use that fund as a way to circumvent the prohibition on making QCDs from an IRA to a DAF. That is, the donor would make a distribution from an IRA to the designated fund (an eligible recipient of a QCD) which would ultimately pass funds through to the DAF (an ineligible recipient of a QCD). We’ve occasionally received questions about using designated funds to pass QCDs through to DAFs and have advised that while this might be compliant on paper it is clearly inconsistent with the intentions of the law and could appear to be an abuse of the QCD rules. We do not recommend using a designated fund to facilitate QCD transfers to DAFs.

Council members are able to send their questions to our Legal team for expert advice and analysis. You can take advantage of this member benefit by becoming a member today.

CF Insights Office Hours

Have questions about how your community foundation can best use CF Insights? Or about how to add CF Insights to your current Council membership? Connect with Council staff on Friday, November 17, during this interactive session to learn more about the program, including the latest data reflecting community foundations, and how to leverage the data available.

Register now to join Friday's session.

2024 Trainings on the Calendar!

The full schedule of 2024 Council trainings is on our Events page, and registration is open for all trainings through May!

If you're looking to take Community Foundation Essentials (CFE) Fundamentals, Legal Matters, Essentials of Policy Advocacy, or our brand new Global Grantmaking Essentials in 2024, take a look at the calendar and register today!

Philanthropy Exchange Conversations for You

• Scholarship Policy
• Politician as community foundation CEO
• Building Operating Reserves & Estate Fees

News Articles

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Giving Is Down — Except for DAFs, Says New Report
• Philanthropy News Digest (Candid): Philanthropy and DEI: Building on momentum post-2020
• The NonProfit Times: Survey: Nonprofit Leaders Rethinking Mission, Operations
• The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Financial Climate and Trust Issues Trouble Nonprofit Sector, Report Finds

Keep in Touch!

Share your organization’s impact story with us at
cofcommunications@cof.org.

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