“Nonprofit groups … will learn how much of a dent President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax bill will put in their donations,” writes Bill Theobald in last Wednesday’s (12/26) USA Today. “Studies predict the damage to charities nationally will be $13 billion to $20 billion, or 3 to 5 percent, said Michael Nilsen, vice president of communication for the Association of Fundraising Professionals.… The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act … is likely to cause people to give less, since they won’t be getting the tax break they once did…. The focus on the impact of the tax law has taken away from the attention that charitable leaders give to another of concern: the gradual decline in the number of givers. Household giving dropped 11 percent from 2000 to 2014, according to the Independent Sector, a national group of nonprofit members, but the overall amount given continues to grow because of the large bequests by individuals and companies. ‘It’s kind of an alarm bell,’ Nilsen said, that signals that people are less connected with their communities. He called charitable giving by the middle class ‘the underpinning of our country.’ ”
Posted January 3, 2019
