With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) set to expire at the end of 2025, inevitable changes in Congress following the 2024 election, and a myriad of recently active issues, the CGP Board of Directors has committed to increasing its advocacy efforts. CGP is now collaborating with Integer, a well-established advocacy firm in the non-profit sector based in Washington, DC, to raise awareness of the impact and value charitable gift planning has in the philanthropic sector and to educate legislators and their staff. 

Our efforts are focused on three areas:

• Enhancing Giving Incentives

• Protecting Giving Tools

• Upholding American Freedom to Give Complex Assets

CGP has been actively conducting multiple meetings with legislative offices to introduce CGP and raise awareness of the challenges organizations face when trying to get timely charitable beneficiary distributions. In early September, CGP took part in a call with members of the Treasury’s Office of Public Engagement and Office of Tax Policy to emphasize concerns about the proposed Donor Advised Fund regulations, which have received widespread criticism.

CGP submitted formal comments earlier this month to the Working Families, New Economy, and Community tax teams. The goal was to raise awareness of the potential negative impacts on charitable giving as Congress begins to plan for changes in tax policy with the expiration of the TCJA. You can view the submitted comments on the CGP Advocacy web page.

Also, the CGP Advocacy web page is the home for the RIFT database, a valuable resource for organizations working with financial institutions to efficiently receive their IRA charitable distributions. New updates are now available, and there is a reprint of an article by Johni Hays on this issue published in the November issue of Planned Giving Today.

CGP provides bi-monthly Advocacy Updates. The most recent update, broadcast on October 17, 2024, may be viewed here. In this session, members of the Integer team provided an update on their activities and discussed their outlook through the election and into 2025.

Now, it’s time you get involved. Join CGP’s efforts to advocate for charitable gift planning by signing on as a CGP Advocate. Your actions can make a difference, and broad-based support is needed to increase our impact and protect charitable giving. Sign up here to receive information about participating in calls to action, adding your organization to sign-on letters, or meeting with key legislators’ staff. Please join us as a CGP Advocate and stay current on all our latest activities by visiting the CGP Advocacy web page.

Exercise your democratic freedom and VOTE!