Public Policy

Council Releases August Advocacy Toolkit This Tuesday, the Council hosted our Washington Update LIVE! webinar to discuss the importance of building relationships with your lawmakers so that they understand the value of philanthropy in their districts and states. Featured speakers: Maggie Gunther…

  Download the Presentation Slides The National Standards for Community Foundations online application has been live in beta testing since January- how is it going? What feedback has been received? Director of National Standards, Lara Kalwinski, and the Vice President for Development at…

News from the Hill Senate Finance Committee Markup of "Tax Extenders" Package This Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee convened to markup a bill that would renew 52 of the “tax extenders,” including the charitable provisions, for the 2015 and 2016 tax years. As our readers will recall, these…

Issue Under Section 512(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, nonprofits are subject to tax on gross income, minus directly connected expenses, for activities that constitute an “unrelated trade or business.” The Code offers a three-pronged test for determining whether a particular activity…

November 15, 2017 Supporting organizations are important charitable tools that donors can use to achieve their specific philanthropic goals. Many of the Council’s members utilize supporting organizations to maximize their impact. Often, a supporting organization manages fundraising or…

Issue The private foundation excise tax, which private foundations pay on net investment income annually, is currently a flat rate of 1.39 percent. This percentage took effect in the 2020 tax year after legislation simplified the two-tiered system to a flat rate. Council’s Policy Position The…

News from the Hill The Council Visits the Hill This past Monday, July 13th, representatives from the Community Foundations National Standards Board (CFNSB) and the Council’s Public Policy and Legal Affairs Team met with congressional staff from the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance…

News from the Hill Senate Tax Reform Working Groups Release Reports The Senate Tax Reform Working Groups released their reports this week. The five groups were organized by Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) to assess needs and priorities for future tax code reform.…

Over the last two years, the Council has been actively engaging with the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as they have taken steps that could shift the global regulatory environment for cross-border philanthropy. FATF has a large impact on nonprofit activity worldwide because of…

We want to remind our readers that we will not be publishing Snapshot next week in light of the Fourth of July holiday. We wish you all a happy Fourth! News from the Hill Senate Tax Reform Working Groups Will Not Meet Today’s Deadline The Council has been following the progress of the Senate…

  Download the Presentation Slides   Building and nurturing relationships with your lawmakers is important because it provides the opportunity to share with them the meaningful work you are doing in their communities. As commentators, academics, and even some policymakers express…

Leaders in the Field Speak Out Philanthropic Sector Unites to Challenge Skeptic The Council and other sector leaders have been responding to a New York Times opinion piece written by David Callahan, who offers some misguided views of the charitable sector. In a response published by the New York…

News from the Hill Tax Reform Work Still Ongoing, McConnell Says This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressed his doubts that comprehensive tax reform will occur in the next two years. However, McConnell emphasized that even without comprehensive reform, Congress will still…

Access to legal services can be essential to addressing your community's needs including domestic abuse, homelessness, and Veterans services. Thinking through the types of legal services, the distinction between civil and criminal legal aid, and how to evaluate these services can be overwhelming.…

Leading Together to Advance Philanthropy Joint Letter Published in The New York Times On Sunday, a New York Times opinion piece offered a troubling take on the state of the charitable sector. David Callahan, who writes for Inside Philanthropy, expressed his view that the sector is the “wild…

Global Policy Update This past Wednesday, the Council on Foundations and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) hosted a conference call on China's Draft Law on Management of Overseas NGOs and its potential impact on U.S. funders and other organizations working in and with China.…