At the Lenawee Community Foundation, our team keeps an eye on trends, ideas, and developments in charitable planning that may be useful as you work with your clients. This month, we’ve gathered nine articles that offer timely perspectives on everything from donor-advised funds and business exits to complex assets, QCDs, and changing approaches to philanthropy.
Here’s what caught our attention.
Generous tech
Tech millionaires are turning to donor-advised funds to save on taxes while giving to charity
–CNBC
A wave of newly wealthy tech employees is using donor-advised funds to contribute appreciated company stock, potentially avoiding capital gains taxes, securing charitable deductions, and giving themselves time to decide which nonprofits to support. The trend is a good reminder for advisors that IPOs and other liquidity events can create significant charitable opportunities—and that the best results often come when charitable planning begins before the transaction. When clients begin talking about a potential exit, even one that may be years away, consider bringing our team into the conversation early.
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. The Foundation offers a range of fund types and charitable planning options that can help you and your clients build lifetime and legacy giving plans aligned with 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. Donor-advised funds are one of several charitable giving options our team can help you and your clients explore.
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. Our team can work alongside you to help clients explore the charitable components of a coordinated giving strategy.
Big givers
Chickens, Pigs Could Be Big Winners From AI’s $300 Billion Philanthropy Wave
–Forbes
The AI boom is creating a new class of young, newly wealthy donors—and potentially an enormous new pool of charitable capital. This fascinating article explores how some of these donors are gravitating toward measurable, evidence-driven causes such as farm-animal welfare, illustrating both how sudden wealth can reshape philanthropy and why advisors working with newly wealthy clients have an opportunity to help turn rapidly created fortunes into intentional charitable plans. Closer to home, our knowledge of Lenawee County’s needs and nonprofits can be a valuable resource as you help clients of all ages and stages identify opportunities for meaningful community impact.
More big giving
Most Billionaires Practice ‘Slow Philanthropy.’ MacKenzie Scott Is a Major Exception
–Fortune
Why do people with enormous charitable capacity sometimes give relatively little of their wealth away each year? This article explores “slow philanthropy” and contrasts it with MacKenzie Scott’s faster, trust-based approach to giving. It raises an interesting issue for advisors: Sometimes effective charitable planning is not only about choosing the right structure or maximizing tax benefits, but also about helping clients feel comfortable actually putting charitable resources to work. Our team can be a sounding board as you help clients consider not only how to give, but also what they hope their generosity will accomplish.
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, a powerful example of how personal values can shape a meaningful charitable legacy.
Her generosity is especially close to home for us. The Lenawee Community Foundation is the local partner for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Lenawee County. Through our Lenawee Imagination Library program, we raise the funds needed to cover the local cost of participation, allowing Lenawee County children to receive a free book delivered to their homes each month at no cost to their families.
Dolly’s commitment to giving with purpose continues to be both inspirational and aspirational for our team, the advisors we work alongside, and the donors who make this work possible.
IRS has its eyes on assets
IRS Eyes Charitable Donation Abuse in New Audits, Tax Pros Say
–Bloomberg Law
The IRS is taking a closer look at charitable contributions of hard-to-value assets, including privately held business interests and art, with tax professionals reporting particular scrutiny of valuation, qualified appraisals, and substantiation requirements. For advisors, this is an important reminder that complex charitable gifts require careful planning and documentation— that bringing our team into the conversation early can help address the charitable side of the transaction before the client takes action.
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. It’s another good reminder to bring charitable planning into the conversation 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. Our team 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?
Even a quick skim of these articles reveals a common thread: Charitable planning opportunities are showing up everywhere—from newly minted tech wealth and business exits to retirement accounts, complex assets, 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’s about helping clients make thoughtful decisions about what to give, when to give, and what they hope their generosity will accomplish.
When those conversations come up, our team is here as a resource. We welcome the opportunity to work alongside you and your clients to turn charitable goals into thoughtful plans and meaningful community impact.