Nonprofits May Face $5.69 Billion Reduction in Donations Under New Federal Tax Rules

In Tuesday’s (3/17) Nonprofit Times Paul Clolery writes, “Future charitable giving in the United States might be reduced by $5.69 billion or roughly 1% of all U.S. giving under tax provisions included in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) law when compared to previous tax law. Authors of a new study from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and presented by CCS Fundraising, estimate that despite the reduced giving more households will donate to charity, reversing the decade-long decline. The report, Philanthropy Outlook: Estimating Effects on Charitable Giving from the One Big Beautiful Bill, estimates how specific tax policy changes in the new law … will affect both household and corporate giving, as well as the combined effects on giving…. Jon Bergdoll, MA., interim director, Data and Research Partnerships at the Lilly Family School, stressed that the report is not predictive of a decline in giving but rather a comparison to what giving would have been had tax policy not changed. The researchers estimated the law’s impact might increase the number of U.S. households where members give by about 8.7 million. However, they estimated that total corporate giving would be approximately $1.55 billion less, or a negative 3.5% of total corporate giving.”