Our Philanthropy Services team is happy to keep an eye out for what’s trending in the field of charitable planning, especially developments that impact your work with your charitable clients and how those clients tap into tools and resources at the Foundation.
Check out the six articles that have caught our attention recently.
Philanthropy beyond DAFs
Philanthropic Planning Is Wealth Management's Next Competitive Frontier, Beyond DAFs
–InvestmentNews
Donor advised funds are important tools, but they are not the whole philanthropic toolbox. This article explores why high-net-worth clients increasingly expect wealth advisors to help them consider a broader range of charitable structures and how that expertise can help advisors strengthen relationships not only with clients, but also with the next generation.
Remember, the Lincoln Community Foundation offers a wide range of fund types and charitable planning structures to help your clients establish a lifetime and legacy giving plan tailored to their financial and charitable goals.
Donor advised fund insights
Five Core Truths About Donor Advised Funds
–WealthManagement.com
This article takes on some common misconceptions about donor advised funds, highlighting their usefulness for coordinating charitable giving and facilitating complex gifts, their significant grantmaking to charities and their increasingly important role in charitable and succession planning.
For advisors, the takeaway is that donor advised funds have become an increasingly important part of the philanthropic landscape – and understanding how they actually work can help clients make better charitable planning decisions. And of course, the Lincoln Community Foundation offers donor advised funds as part of its broad menu of charitable giving vehicles.
Even more donor advised fund insights
Donor Advised Fund Strategies For 2026
–Financial Advisor Magazine
This article looks at donor advised funds through a 2026 planning lens, including how advisors can use donor advised funds as part of broader tax and charitable strategies rather than simply as repositories for year-end gifts. The bigger opportunity is to help clients coordinate the timing, assets and ultimate purpose of their charitable giving with the rest of their financial plans. The Lincoln Community Foundation team plays an important role at the table to help you help your clients navigate the charitable and tax components of charitable giving.
Celebrating a life of giving
Dolly Parton’s Other Legacy: A Fortune Given Away, Dollar by Dollar
–New York Times
Dolly Parton’s philanthropy was unusually practical and personal, directing her wealth toward needs she understood firsthand – from childhood literacy and disaster relief in Tennessee to wildlife conservation and COVID-19 vaccine research. Her approach emphasized simple, direct action, and trust in recipients – all of which are inspirational and aspirational to our Lincoln Community Foundation team and the advisors and donors we work with!
Exits and opportunities
How Advanced Charitable Exit Planning Drives AUM Growth
–Financial Advisor Magazine
Business exits can be important charitable planning moments, particularly when advisors raise the subject before a transaction is already underway. This article explores how strategies involving charitable trusts, donor advised funds, and gifts of business interests can help address a business owner's tax and philanthropic objectives while also helping advisors deepen relationships and potentially retain more assets under management after the sale. As always, reach out to the Lincoln Community Foundation as early as possible!
The checkbook (cringe) lives on!
Retirees Over 70½ Can Send $111,000 a Year From an IRA to Charity Tax-Free. The Average One Donates From Checking Instead.
–24/7 Wall St.
Many charitably inclined retirees are still giving from their checking accounts even though a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) may offer a more tax-efficient route for eligible IRA owners. The article is a useful reminder that advisors can add value simply by asking how a client is making charitable gifts: Sometimes changing the asset or account used to make the same gift can produce a very different tax result.
As always, the Foundation can help your clients explore eligible ways to make QCD gifts, including, where appropriate, gifts to designated, field-of-interest and unrestricted funds. Remember that QCDs cannot be made to donor advised funds.
What’s the takeaway here? As you skim these articles, or even just the headlines, a pattern emerges pretty quickly! Charitable planning opportunities are showing up everywhere—from business exits, retirement accounts, and the rapidly evolving world of donor advised funds. Just as important, the articles reinforce that good charitable planning is about more than finding a tax break or selecting a giving vehicle; it is about helping clients make thoughtful decisions about what to give, when to give it and what they hope their generosity will accomplish.
The Lincoln Community Foundation team is here as a sounding board whenever those conversations arise. Please reach out anytime!
