LEGAL Q&A 58 NOVEMBER 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” said the Lord Jesus. Americans – especially those who consider themselves people of faith – take this exhortation seriously. Charitable contributions of nearly half a trillion dollars in 2020 alone were greater than the entire gross domestic products of most European countries. More than 80% of giving is done by individuals, much of it to faith-based organizations. A question too few generous Americans ask, however, is how they should give. Charitable giving strategies exist to give more, and more effectively, and they are not just for the wealthy: surprisingly, according to the Philanthropy Roundtable, households making less than $50,000 a year donate a higher percentage of their income than all but the very wealthiest. Bill Davell: Does a charitable giving strategy seem self-serving? Christine Yates: Dave Ramsey points out that one key purpose of strategies for achieving financial peace is the opportunity to give more. A giving strategy allows you to give more, give more effectively, and give with more peace and satisfaction. In other words, to be – and receive – an even bigger blessing. BD: So what giving strategies should everyone consider? CY: A strategy is about being focused and purposeful, which is a key to success in life as well as effective giving. Here are some threshold ways to accomplish that: • Budgeting: Being purposeful starts with putting aside amounts for giving in your yearly or monthly budget (the key to financial success) for all the kinds of giving you do, not just church giving but also giving to other causes and to individuals – think about helping family members or responding to GoFundMe requests. The way to be able to respond confidently is to consider ahead of time how much you can give and to set that amount aside so that you are ready when the need arises. • Focus: Requests to give come at us from many directions at all times. You – and those you support – will get the most satisfaction from giving to causes im portant to you, including those to which you also volunteer time. And if your gifts are focused, you can afford to give more to the causes important to you. So when requests come in “over-the-transom” (as people managing corporate giving call it) don’t be afraid to indicate that your giving is already planned and subscribed for the year. • Homework: Know whom you are giving. Many so-called charities are scams, others are badly run and don’t achieve what they promise, and others have large administrative expenses (religious organizations have among the lowest). The indication that your giving is subscribed helps deal with pressure to give, espe- cially when you’re confronted on the spot. BD: What about tax strategies for giving? It seems a lot more people aren’t benefitting from tax deductions given the higher standard deduction. CY: It’s true that the higher standard deduction appears to make charitable deductions less worthwhile. But there are ways of arranging giving to get around that seeming limitation, including: • “Bunching” – consolidating contributions planned for several years into a single tax year, or making gifts during a specific, high-income year; • Donating appreciated securities to avoid income tax liability, or assets to avoid estate tax liability; • Giving directly from IRAs instead of realizing taxable income – essentially a tax deduction; and • Buying a life insurance policy and naming a charity as beneficiary (which also allows you to “leverage” the premiums for an ultimately higher payout). BD: The discussion of being purposeful reminds me of the phrase “planned giving.” What is that about? CY: “Planned giving” is generally associated with gifts that will become effective upon death. But as you can see, it can also be about making giving part of a financial plan during a donor’s lifetime. It takes into account not just income, but various kinds of property and uses of financial instruments and charitable structures. That’s why we at Tripp Scott tend to speak more about charitable giving strategies. For upper income individuals, these strategies can involve specialized structures, be they donor-advised funds, family foundations, or other ways of avoiding not only income taxes but gift and estate taxes that might not affect those who are outside of these top brackets. But anyone can make planned gifts of accumulated savings or valuable property – and people who have planned and managed their money well during their life often have such assets even if they have not been top earners. Whatever your situation, the Private Wealth Services Group at Tripp Scott can sit down with you and examine strategies that can help you maximize the impact of your giving in this life and beyond, while also helping you ensure a secure financial future for your family. You can contact us at 954-525-7500 or via trippscott.com/contact-us. If you have any topics you think may be of interest to our readers, we encourage you to email us at [email protected]. Charitable Giving Strategies: How to Be a Bigger Blessing William “Bill” C. Davell Esq. The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month Bill Davell discusses giving strategies with Christine Yates, director with Tripp Scott.
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