Strategic Year-End Giving
Thoughtful strategies for making the most of your charitable gifts
Year-end charitable giving can accomplish more than supporting the organizations you care about. With thoughtful planning, it can also create meaningful tax advantages.
If you don’t itemize, you could use a charitable bundling strategy whereby you estimate your charitable giving goals for the next few years and, instead, make the gifts in a single year. You can then itemize your deductions in the first year and take the standard deduction in subsequent years.
That said, not-for-profits must record the gift as revenue over the years before the next bundled gift is received. To avoid that accounting requirement, you can also get a deduction by giving enough to exceed the standard deduction to a donor-advised fund and granting those funds over time to the organizations that matter to you.
If you take the standard deduction ($16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly in 2026), the One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a limited deduction for charitable giving. Beginning in 2026, you can deduct up to $1,000 per individual or $2,000 per married couple in cash donations to qualified public charities without itemizing. This deduction is available in addition to the standard deduction and is limited to cash gifts made directly to public operating charities. Contributions to donor-advised funds and private foundations do not qualify for this treatment.
With the S & P up 14% year-to-date as of this article submission, donating appreciated securities (and other non-cash holdings that have increased in value) may be more tax-efficient than giving cash. This also affords deductibility at the fair market value of the property while avoiding taxes on the capital gains.
Other great gifts include Qualified Charitable Distributions from IRAs for those 70 1/2 and older. For tax year 2026, you can donate up to $111,000 tax-free, and you can use up to $55,000 of a QCD to make a one-time donation to a charitable remainder trust (CRT) or charitable gift annuity (CGA). For married couples, you can each donate up to your individual annual limit. Distributions count toward RMDs.
The QCD must be paid directly from the IRA custodian to the qualifying charity. If the funds pass through your hands first, the distribution becomes ordinary taxable income and loses its QCD status. In addition, the IRS treats the first dollars distributed from an IRA each year as the required minimum distribution, so timing matters. To ensure a QCD satisfies the RMD, it should generally be completed before any other IRA withdrawals are taken.
As always, I suggest you discuss your year-end giving plans with your professional advisors who can ensure that you make the most tax-wise gifts. Start now, as it can take some time to plan and execute your year-end charitable giving strategies.
