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The Morton Community Foundation helps bring your charitable goals to life.
2025 INCENTIVES FOR GIVING, missed deadlines, and the paradox of choice
Greetings from the Morton Community Foundation!
The year is in full swing! It is our pleasure to work with so many individuals, families, and businesses to establish charitable funds and legacies to achieve the community impact that means the most to you. For those of you who have not yet established a fund but are considering it, thank you! We look forward to learning more about your charitable goals and identifying ways the Morton Community Foundation can help.
Here’s what’s trending here at the community foundation.
In honor of our 25th anniversary, the MCF is offering four major giving incentives in 2025 to maximize donor impact. The Phil and Barbara Kuhl Grow-the-MCF Matching Gifts Fund will match $0.50 per dollar for donations of $5,000–$20,000 to endowment funds. The Illinois Gives Tax Credit Act offers a 25% state tax credit for qualified endowment gifts. Caterpillar employees and retirees can double their donations through a 1:1 match, and donating appreciated stock provides tax benefits. These initiatives make giving more rewarding while ensuring long-term support for local causes. READ MORE
Missed deadlines are no fun, especially where tax rules and the IRS are concerned. If you intended to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution in 2024 but missed the deadline, take a moment right now to be sure you are planning for 2025. QCDs are excellent tools for people who’ve reached the age of 70 ½, and the Morton Community Foundation can help you make the most of the opportunity. READ MORE
Having choices is a good thing, right? Of course! But that doesn’t mean it’s not overwhelming to be faced with a lot of options, especially where charitable giving is concerned. That’s where the Morton Community Foundation comes in. We can help you sort through the options, simplify a strategy, and set a plan in motion to achieve both your philanthropic and tax planning goals. READ MORE
Wishing you all the best for February!
Your Morton Community Foundation Staff
Scott Witzig, Executive Director
Darcy Roecker, Administrative Manager
Incentives for starting or growing your endowment fund at the MCF
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the Morton Community Foundation (MCF) is introducing four significant giving incentives for 2025, designed to amplify donors’ impact on the community. These opportunities include the Phil and Barbara Kuhl Grow-the-MCF Matching Gifts Fund, offering a $0.50 match per dollar for donations between $5,000 and $20,000 to new or existing endowment funds. Additionally, the Illinois Gives Tax Credit Act of 2025 provides a 25% state tax credit on contributions to qualified endowment funds. Caterpillar employees and retirees can further enhance their gifts through the Caterpillar Foundation’s 1:1 matching program, and donating appreciated stock offers substantial tax benefits. These initiatives not only provide personal financial advantages but also ensure sustained support for cherished local causes.
1] Phil and Barbara Kuhl Grow-the-MCF Matching Gifts Fund
The Kuhl Fund matches donations to new or existing endowment funds at MCF:
$0.50 match per dollar on single gifts of $5,000 to $20,000. (Example: $5,000 donation = $2,500 match; $20,000 or more donation = $10,000 match.)
Eligible Funds: Endowment funds only (non-endowed funds do not qualify). Match does not qualify when establishing a new endowed Scholarship fund.
Matching Cap: $100,000 in matching funds is available for 2025—first come, first served.
2] Illinois Gives Tax Credit Act of 2025
Through this program:
Donors to qualified endowment funds held at qualified community foundations can receive a 25% Illinois state tax credit on contributions.
Tax credits are capped at $100,000 per donor annually (up to $400,000 in donations).
$5 million in tax credits are available statewide for 2025, with 25% reserved for contributions of $25,000 or less.
MCF can receive up to $3 million in qualified contributions.
Act quickly—credits are first-come, first-served.
3] Caterpillar Employees & Retirees – Matching Gifts Program from the Caterpillar Foundation
The Caterpillar Foundation offers a year-round Matching Gifts Program that matches employee and U.S. retiree donations to eligible charities on a 1:1 basis, up to $10,000 per participant annually.
This means that if you are a Caterpillar employee or retiree, your donation to the Morton Community Foundation can be doubled, significantly enhancing your contribution to the community.
4] Stock Gifting is the Most Tax-Friendly Way to Support the Mission of the Morton Community Foundation and/or it’s Many Endowment Funds
Donating appreciated stock offers unmatched tax benefits, such as avoiding capital gains tax on the appreciated value while deducting the full fair market value of stock held for more than 12 months.
For example, if you purchased Apple stock 10 years ago at $20 per share, a gift of 100 shares now worth $20,000 would have cost you just $2,000. You avoid taxes on $18,000 in gains and can deduct the full $20,000 as a charitable deduction for tax purposes.
Stock donations are easy, take minutes online, and are completely free for you and your advisor. Learn more on our website, or call for a no obligation discussion.
QC … Drat! If you missed the 2024 deadline, start planning now
A Qualified Charitable Distribution (“QCD”) is a useful tool if you’ve reached the age of 70 ½ and want to give to a designated, field-of-interest, or unrestricted fund at the Morton Community Foundation. Indeed, in 2025, you can direct up to $108,000 from your IRA to many types of funds at the Morton Community Foundation, although donor-advised funds are not eligible.
But what if you intended to make a QCD in 2024 and time got away from you? Perhaps you even initiated a QCD on December 31 but it was too late to qualify for 2024 because of the way these transactions are settled between administrators and recipients. This is a complex topic for sure, and you’ll want to discuss the details with your tax advisors. At a high-level, here are a few considerations if you missed the opportunity last year.
First and foremost, ensure you have taken your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) for 2024 if you are required to do so. Failing to take your RMD can result in significant penalties, so this should be your top priority. If you missed your RMD deadline because you were planning to make a QCD, you should file IRS Form 5329 and request a waiver.
While you can't retroactively make a QCD for the previous year, you can get a jump on 2025. Indeed, there are lots of reasons to make your QCDs early in the year. For example, it’s smart to try to avoid potential conflicts with the "first-dollars-out rule,” meaning that the first dollars withdrawn from an IRA will count toward your RMD. QCDs early in the year help ensure that it will count toward your RMD before taking any other distributions that might be taxable. And of course, avoiding the year-end rush is imperative.
The Morton Community Foundation is always happy to work with you and your advisors to help you carry out your charitable giving goals, whether you’re exploring a QCD or any of the many ways you can support the causes you love. We look forward to working with you this year!
Gifts to your fund: Breaking through the paradox of choice
As you consider your 2025 giving priorities, you’ll no doubt recall that writing a check to favorite charities is not the only way to support the causes you love. But sometimes it seems easiest to reach for the checkbook because it’s overwhelming to think about all the options.
You might be experiencing what’s known as the “paradox of choice,” a phenomenon where an abundance of options actually decreases your satisfaction and diminishes your decision-making ability. Too many choices can cause decision fatigue, anxiety, and regret over potentially missed opportunities.
We understand! The Morton Community Foundation is here for you. We’ll help you evaluate potential assets that would make great gifts to your donor-advised or other type of fund at the Morton Community Foundation, including:
Gifts of publicly-traded stock, allowing you to potentially avoid capital gains tax.
Giving shares of closely-held business interests to your fund as part of a long-term business succession plan.
Gifts of real estate, including farmland or commercial property, allowing you to potentially avoid capital gains tax and reduce the value of your taxable estate if future estate taxes are a concern.
Beneficiary designations on retirement plans, and even “Qualified Charitable Distributions” from your IRA to a designated or field-of-interest fund if you are over the age of 70 ½.
Naming your fund at the Morton Community Foundation as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, or even transferring a whole life policy and making annual tax-deductible contributions to the Morton Community Foundation to cover the premium.
Gifts of oil and gas interests, cryptocurrency, and collectibles are also possibilities for adding to your fund at the Morton Community Foundation.
The bottom line here is that our team can help you work through the possibilities. We’ll make sure that the daunting range of options doesn’t prevent you from making the best decisions to achieve both your financial planning and charitable giving goals.
