At Reynders, McVeigh, we see charitable giving as an excellent opportunity to blend financial strategies with our clients’ values. That can be a challenging task without the right guidance: today’s giving landscape is marked by volatility in public funding, evolving community needs, and a heightened sense of urgency. With so much complexity, donors are often unsure of how much to give, which vehicles match their goals, and how it all fits together as part of their financial picture.
In a recent discussion, Carrie Endries, Partner, Director of Wealth Management and Impact, and Jacqui Smith, Portfolio Manager, shared how clients are approaching charitable giving in this unique environment, and the strategies they can employ to make the most impact.
Charitable giving today is being shaped at the center of social, political, and economic factors. Donors are tracking key reductions in federal support for programs like SNAP, Medicaid, medical research, and public media, and how states are planning to respond.
“A lot of that funding hasn’t necessarily gone away yet,” notes Endries. “It’s the anticipation of what’s going to happen. If states don’t pick up the slack from federal cutbacks, demand on nonprofits could be meaningfully higher by 2028 or 2029.”
This stress on nonprofits underscores the rising polarization and politicization of charitable causes. For some donors, this environment leads to greater intentionality about where they contribute, and in some cases, whether they prefer anonymity. Others simply feel a greater sense of urgency to kick their philanthropy into high gear.
“The clients that I’ve worked with this year, the ones already charitably inclined, are making donations earlier in the year rather than waiting for year-end,” Smith said. “They don’t want to wait until year-end to make gifts when the needs and the opportunity to help are here now.”
This shift toward earlier, more proactive giving reflects both headwinds and conviction. Heightened costs for nonprofits, market performance that has buoyed portfolios, and donors’ desire to make an impact in real time are all contributing to this notable change in the cadence of philanthropy. This is driving a desire for more structured approaches to giving, while one-off, reactive gifts are on the decline.
Against this backdrop of greater need and shifting donor behavior, how can families support their chosen causes in ways that are effective today and sustainable over time?
One of the most popular and flexible approaches is the Donor-Advised Fund. These accounts allow donors to maximize tax deductions by making large contributions in one year. The donation applies to that moment in time, but the funds do not need to be distributed to charities right away; they can instead be portioned out over time as the donor sees fit.
A DAF can be funded from a variety of asset types, including stocks, cash, mutual funds, and private business interests. Once assets are placed into the DAF, there is flexibility to determine the giving strategy for eligible 501(c)(3) public charities.
For families who feel urgency but also want to give thoughtfully and over a longer time horizon, this approach strikes a good balance.
“Clients embrace DAFs to put extra funds toward important causes now, while also securing a larger deduction in the current year. That then frees up resources to donate the next year and the year after,” Endries said.
In 2025, donors can deduct up to 60 percent of adjusted gross income for cash gifts and up to 30 percent for appreciated stock given to a DAF, with a five-year carryforward if deductions exceed those limits. This makes DAFs particularly noteworthy for families that are experiencing a high-income year and are looking to reduce exposure to concentrated stock positions, or want to take advantage of favorable market conditions.
DAFs also simplify the administrative side of giving. The fund administrator verifies the charity’s 501(c)(3) status, liquidates donated assets without triggering capital gains, and provides consolidated records for tax reporting. For clients concerned about privacy, most DAF structures also allow for anonymous gifts.
A strong option for efficiency and flexibility, DAFs can help families engage more deeply with philanthropy. We’ve helped some clients establish multi-year giving plans from a single front-loaded contribution. Other individuals and families may use DAFs as an opportunity to teach the next generation about grantmaking, or by setting aside funds for themes that are important to them like climate, education, or social equity.
Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) are direct transfers from an IRA to a qualified public charity, providing donors older than 70½ with a tax-efficient way to give. Funds go straight to the charity, so the distribution is excluded from taxable income but is still considered part of the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). This means retirees can support causes they care about while minimizing the tax burden that comes with a standard IRA withdrawal.
For the 2025 tax year, individuals can give up to $108,000 through QCDs, or $216,000 for couples. Eligible accounts include Traditional IRAs, Inherited IRAs, and inactive SEP or SIMPLE IRAs.
Unlike a donor-advised fund, QCDs must go directly to an operating charity rather than being held for future grantmaking, making them best suited for donors who want their contributions to have an immediate impact. QCDs also differ from DAFs in that gifts cannot be made anonymously.
The benefits of QCDs extend beyond tax efficiency. They are straightforward to execute, since most custodians will handle the transfer directly to the charity, and they allow donors to meet both philanthropic and regulatory obligations in a single step. For some, QCDs also become a predictable annual tradition: using part or all of their RMD each year to fund organizations they care most about, while keeping taxable income in check.
Donating appreciated securities is a simple yet effective strategy to align charitable giving with portfolio management. When stock that has been held for more than one year is donated directly to a qualified public charity or DAF, the donor may then deduct the fair market value of the securities. Done correctly, this helps to reduce capital gains tax on appreciation.
For 2025, under current IRS rules, the deduction for gifts of appreciated stock is capped at 30 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI), with a five-year carryforward available if the contribution exceeds that limit. If a donor gives a mix of cash and securities in the same year, the combined deduction limit generally becomes 50 percent of AGI.
This approach is especially useful for clients with concentrated positions in a single company or sector. By gifting shares instead of selling them, donors can reduce their portfolio risk while also amplifying the value of their charitable support. It is, in effect, a way to turn investment gains into direct social impact without triggering a taxable event.
“When working with clients to identify stocks for this strategy, we’re looking for positions that have done very, very well and grown too large. One way to resize is to gift shares, either directly to 501(c)(3) charities or to a donor-advised fund,” Smith said.
Sometimes the motivation is both financial and personal. Clients who inherit or hold stock in companies they no longer wish to support have found giving those positions away to be a rewarding way to shed symbolic “baggage.”
“Maybe you don't want to take all the capital gains tax that comes with a high-performing position. You already participate in charitable giving, so why not kill two birds with one stone by taking some of this stock and putting it toward a great cause?” Endries said.
A related strategy involves first donating appreciated stock and subsequently purchasing it in a taxable account. Doing this effectively resets your basis to the current price for the shares you continue to hold, without triggering wash-sale rules.
“This can be an effective way to maintain exposure while resetting the cost basis, depending on your overall financial plan,” Endries said.
For families looking to simplify, stock gifts can also be routed through a donor-advised fund, where the custodian handles liquidation, tax reporting, and grantmaking logistics. The result is a cleaner portfolio, a potential tax benefit, and more resources flowing to organizations that reflect the donor’s values.
Tax-efficient charitable giving can seem overwhelming without the right information. Families should know there are ways for them to act quickly while also ensuring that their giving is sustainable, tax-efficient, and aligned with their portfolio goals.
The tools available today make that possible. Donor-Advised Funds give families the ability to front-load gifts and pace distributions over time. Qualified charitable distributions provide retirees with a way to meet regulatory requirements and philanthropic goals in a single step. Gifting appreciated securities allows donors to reduce concentrated positions and transform investment gains into direct support for the causes that matter most.
At Reynders, McVeigh, we view philanthropy as an important element of wealth management. Our role is to help clients give with confidence: building plans that turn values into action, channel urgency into meaningful impact, and ensure that charitable dollars work as hard as investment dollars.
Learn more in our Charitable Gifting Guide
DISCLOSURE: Please note, this insight paper is general in nature and should not serve as the primary basis for your charitable contribution planning. Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, LLC (“RMCM”) does not provide legal or tax advice. Please consult an attorney or tax professional regarding questions on your specific situation. Always rely on information provided by your custodian for tax reporting, as they report data directly to the Internal Revenue Service. Past discussions or examples are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute a recommendation or guarantee of future results.