Martin, Author at Missoula Community Foundation

Feb. 22 | Estate Planning & Charitable Giving

Making a Plan: The Intersection Between Charitable Giving and Estate Planning

Educational Events for Philanthropy & Community Giving

The Missoula Community Foundation will host Making a Plan: The Intersection Between Charitable Giving and Estate Planning, an evening of learning together with Estate Planning Attorney Martha Goodloe, from 5:30 to 7:00 PM on February 22nd at The Confluence Center.

Participants will learn the benefits and process of incorporating charitable giving into their estate – and will come away with an easy step-by-step plan to do so. Martha Goodloe has been helping Missoulians build impactful estate plans for the past decade and is especially skilled in helping her clients balance family and community interests.

This is the first of the Missoula Community Foundation’s Be the Change Educational Series. This series includes presentations, workshops and panel discussions that support and encourage philanthropy in Missoula and beyond. This series is free and open to the public.

Presented by Martha Goodloe.

by Martin

Transfer of Wealth

The Greatest Transfer of Wealth

What does this mean for Missoula?

What Impacts Will the Greatest Wealth Transfer Have on Missoula?

You may have heard that the largest wealth transfer in history is currently underway. This monumental shift involves the transfer of wealth from the Baby Boomer and Silent Generation to younger generations.

The term ‘Baby Boomer’ originated during a period of robust postwar economic growth, as Americans’ confidence led to larger families, resulting in a population and economic boom. This economic prosperity translated into substantial wealth accumulation for the Baby Boomer generation.

As the Baby Boomers retire, require long-term care, and eventually pass away, their amassed wealth, estimated at around $30 trillion to $68 trillion, will be passed down to their children, grandchildren, and other beneficiaries. This significant wealth transfer is expected to have broad implications for the entire U.S. economy, and it is already underway in Missoula. Projections indicate that by 2030, approximately $3.6 billion will be transferred from one generation to the next in Missoula County.*

Missoula was built by Missoulians, and together we can ensure that it thrives and retains it’s unique character for the next generation. If we capture just 5% of this wealth transfer for Missoula, we can generate $8.1 million to support this special place. At the Missoula Community Foundation, our role is to make it easy to harness this 5% for Missoula, by providing the resources, expertise and outreach needed to make it happen.

*This study was commissioned by The Montana Community Foundation (MCF)

by Martin

Giving After 70 and The Secure Act

Giving After 70 and How The Secure Act Has Changed That

In late December 2022 the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2023 was signed into law. The Missoula Community Foundation has been watching this legislation carefully because it has the potential to incentivize giving to Missoula area charities – most notably by providing tax benefits and disbursing taxable income for seniors. The Secure Act of 2022, housed in this legislation, enhances and expands the ways in which seniors can use their retirement assets to make charitable gifts.

So here is the lowdown on the changes and a few articles we have been reading. The IRA Charitable Rollover, passed in 2006, allows taxpayers age 70½ or older to transfer up to $100,000 annually from their IRA directly to a public charity without first having to recognize the distribution as income. These transfers from an IRA to a charity are called Qualified Charitable Distributions or QCDs.

One of the enhancements in the new legislation is that IRA holders 70½ or older are allowed to make a one time distribution to a charitable gift annuity or a CRUT. This distribution will count towards the IRA holders Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) if you are 73 or older and can help spread that taxable income over subsequent years.

Marcy Allen, our Executive Director, met Sally Scheafer at a planned giving workshop last fall. Scheafer has been a key player in developing and moving this legislation forward, and her recent article (co-authored by Emily Horiwitz from the American Heart Association who took the lead in organizing charitable organizations to support the legislation) has some great highlights on how seniors and charities can benefit from the changes. The new legislation also indexes the existing IRA Charitable Rollover amount (currently at $100,000) starting in 2024. This will be the first inflationary increase since the legislation was passed in 2006.

As with any new legislation, there are often many questions about how it will work in real life. This recent legal analysis might be of interest to professional service providers, especially with regard to the new “Legacy IRA” provisions allowing eligible taxpayers to make a one-time QCD to a charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity.

The team at the community foundation is a resource and sounding board for both donors and professional service providers. We understand the charitable side of the equation and are happy to serve as a secondary source. This post is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.

by Martin

Technology Grants awarded to 16 nonprofits, focused on connecting community during COVID-19.

Dec. 17, 2020, Missoula, Mont. — The Missoula Community Foundation (Msla CF) recently awarded $27k in technology grants to 16 Missoula nonprofits. This year, the Msla CF tailored these grants to benefit local nonprofits in need of technology education, hardware or software so they can continue to keep our community connected during the pandemic.

These grants will help connect children for educational purposes, connect people for health reasons, and allow organizations to provide their services while reducing risk for clients and staff.

“The Missoula Community Foundation aimed to provide some relief for what we’ve all been dealing with,” said Marcy Allen, Msla CF Executive Director. “Technology has allowed us to stay connected to our jobs, healthcare, friends, family and school. We hope these grants will allow organizations to continue to provide essential services to Missoula.”

For instance, The Poverello Center received a grant to utilize a scanning system for clients accessing meals,

“Receiving the Missoula Community Foundation’s technology grant will have a tremendous impact in allowing us to more safely and efficiently serve those experiencing homelessness in our community during the COVID-19 pandemic.’ said Jesse Jaeger, Poverello Center Director of Development and Advocacy. “The guest scan card system will speed up our check-in systems for accessing food and shelter, creating better social distancing, while at the same time making our program data collection much more accurate.”

The Fourth D Club, which provides a safe place for 12 step programs to meet, received funding for a 360 conferencing camera to allow virtual attendees to feel like they are part of the in person meetings.

The Watershed Education Network received funding for their staff to get education on creating videos and materials to provide virtual curriculum to local schools.

The Msla CF had an unprecedented number of applications and decided to call on their partners to help them fund more of the grants than they could have otherwise. ATG/Cognizant, First Security Bank, United Way of Missoula County, and Sunrise Rotary all pitched in to meet this significant community need.

“This collaborative work to address community needs during the pandemic has really been a bright light for me, it says so much about our community”, said Marcy Allen Executive Director of Missoula Community Foundation.

The Missoula Community Foundation is proud to support these great organizations. To learn more about future funding opportunities and the Community Foundation, https://missoulacommunityfoundation.org/ or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Technology Grant Recipients:

C.S. Porter Middle School
Fourth D Inc.
Franklin Elementary PTA
Home Resource
Impact Montana
Missoula Interfaith Collaborative
Moving Mountains Foundation
Partnership for Children
Poverello Center
Recycling Works
Soft Landing
Tamarack Grief Resource Center
The Greater Missoula Family YMCA
Watershed Education Network
Youth Homes
YWCA Missoula

December 17, 2020

We Give Together, We Decide Together, We Benefit Together

Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County Awards Racial and/or Social Justice Grant

The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County is proud to announce that the winner of their second $5000 grant for 2020 is being awarded to EmpowerMT. EmpowerMT (https://www.empowermt.org/) was established in 1998 in reaction to the glaring absence of anti-oppression organizations in Montana working to end systemic racism, homophobia, and discrimination. This organization is multi-generational and multi-issue, recognizing the intersections between all forms of oppression, and works to end them all to create a more just and inclusive society.

“EmpowerMT is honored to receive this generous gift from the Missoula Women’s Giving Circle. Beyond supporting our larger mission to create a just and inclusive Montana, this gift will go directly to EmpowerMT’s BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) youth group, an after-school program created and led by some of Missoula’s young BIPOC leaders, passionate about creating a space where BIPOC youth can come together, share experiences, and impact social change and racial justice in Missoula and across Montana.”

The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County aims to engage women of diverse backgrounds and varying wealth levels to build community and grow philanthropy. The Giving Circle was formed in 2018 and is a diverse, dynamic and generous group of women and non-binary peoples engaged in the exciting venture of strategic philanthropy. Operated by the Missoula Community Foundation, Giving Circle members collectively pool their resources in order to leverage their gifts significantly each year for a worthy local nonprofit. The Giving Circle is run by its members who vote on which application will receive funding. A donation to the Giving Circle gives you membership, educational opportunities and the opportunity to participate in the voting process. The mission of the Women’s Giving Circle is to inspire collaborative giving to strengthen our community. We envision a community where all gifts have value, all donors have a voice, and all Missoula County benefits.

Since its inception, the Giving Circle has granted $30,000 to local nonprofits. In 2018, the Women’s Giving Circle awarded a $10,000 grant from contributions from 80 women, to the Lived Experience Voices and Leaders (LEVL) program at the Missoula Food Bank. The LEVL Program is led by women who have experienced poverty and encourages them to find solutions to hunger based on that experience. In 2019, a $10,000 grant was awarded to Free Cycles, for their work benefitting the environment by helping remove vehicles from our roads. Our first 2020 grant of $5000 was designed to benefit a Missoula County organization that addresses the devastating effects of Covid-19 on our community. The YWCA Emergency Housing program received that grant.

For more information about the Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County, go to womensgivingcirclemissoula.org.

KPAX Story by Connor McCauley, How EmpowerMT intends to use the grant funds.

Congratulations, EmpowerMT!

December 1, 2020

Missoula Community Foundation to Issue Technology Grants

The Missoula Community Foundation recognizes the role that technology is playing in the lives of Missoulians, so they are accepting applications for small technology grants to individuals and groups that need them.

Program Manager for the Missoula Community Foundation Nikki Robb explains.

“We keep hearing from everyone that there’s a lot of technology needs out there,” said Robb. “We’re all finding new ways to stay connected and to get connected and to be able to do things like ordering your groceries or call your doctor, all these different services, but not everybody has access to these things, so we decided this is a great time to offer some smaller grants that are technology-focused.”

October 29, 2020