By Hillary Evans, Vice President of Professional Learning & Public Policy, Philanthropy Southwest
Public Policy Roundup - Summer Edition
Join Us for a PSW DC Fly-In
Philanthropy Southwest is organizing a Washington, DC fly-in, September 6-8, 2022. Given that Foundations on the Hill has been virtual the past two years, we are scheduling Hill meetings with select congressional member offices in the U.S. Southwest region as Congress gears up for year-end legislation this fall.
This fly-in will present an opportunity to meet on pending legislation relevant to the charitable sector and strategize on policy priorities in the coming year. There is no cost to attend, but meals, flight and hotel arrangements are on your own.
If you’re not able to join us in Washington, we encourage foundation leaders to engage locally with your congressional member offices in district next month during the August recess. District engagement is an important time to connect with congressional leaders on a variety of issues important to philanthropy and build relationships. Check out the following recording available here on District Engagement 101: Why Telling Your Story at Home is the Key to Advocacy Success hosted by Integer, a bipartisan advocacy firm. Sara Barba, VP at Integer, moderated this virtual program on June 30th which featured foundation leaders, Katie Alford, President & CEO of Community Foundation of Abilene and Seyron Foo, Senior Program Officer at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with Joel Larsen, State Advocacy Director at YMCA of the USA.
If you are interested in participating in the PSW September DC Fly-In or need support with engaging with congressional offices locally within your district, please email Hillary Evans, VP of Professional Learning and Public Policy, hillary@philanthropysouthwest.org.
Casey Family Programs Seeking Partners to Support Indian Child Welfare Act in Court
Casey Family Programs is working to engage philanthropic leaders in a dialogue and build support for the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). The ICWA set unprecedented protections to address the assimilationist policies that led to the systematic removal of almost one-third of all American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) from their homes by state child welfare and private adoption agencies.
Today, the ICWA is threatened by a case, Haaland v. Brackeen, in which plaintiffs are seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional. The case has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The ICWA has set a critical standard that has allowed Tribes, Native communities, and advocates to develop community-driven solutions and resources to protect and preserve the cultural identity of Native children and their relationship with their families and cultural communities. These benefits would no longer be protected if the ICWA is struck down.
To help protect the ICWA, Casey Family Programs has partnered with Against the Current Consulting, a native-owned firm, to rally philanthropic support for an amicus brief that will be submitted to the Supreme Court. The primary objective of the amicus brief would be to re-frame the discussion around ICWA, explaining from the perspective of child welfare and adoption experts that ICWA represents the gold standard of child welfare practice for all children in our nation.
You can learn more about the work to preserve the ICWA here. To discuss how your organization can join this effort, including signing onto the amicus brief, contact Antoinette Malveaux at amalveaux@casey.org or Christine Calpin at CCalpin@casey.org.
Giving USA Report Shows Decline in Inflation-Adjusted Giving
On June 21, Giving USA released its 2022 Annual Report on Philanthropy, which reports on charitable giving in 2021. The report shows total charitable giving increased to $484.85 billion in 2021, up four percent from 2020 in current dollars. However, the increase remained flat, a 0.7 percent decrease after adjusting for inflation. This report also includes a new chapter on understanding giving patterns of donor advised funds and their donors. For more details and highlights on this study click here.
Modified Legacy IRA Included in Senate Retirement Package
On June 22, the Senate Finance Committee approved their bipartisan retirement package, the Enhancing American Retirement Now (EARN) Act, also referred to as SECURE 2.0. This legislation includes a modified version of the Legacy IRA Act which would encourage charitable gifts by enabling seniors to make tax-free contributions from individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to charities through life-income plans.
The pared-down Legacy IRA provision included in the Senate’s package is almost identical to what was included in the House-passed retirement bill and would allow for a one-time $50,000 distribution from IRAs to certain charitable giving vehicles, such as charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts. A slight difference between the two versions is the House retirement bill indexes the IRA charitable rollover for inflation upon enactment and the Senate package indexes the rollover after 2023, likely to account for cost constraints.
House and Senate leaders will conference to reconcile the differences between the two bills. With broad bipartisan support, this legislation is likely to move through the legislative process and become law by the end of this year.
For a summary of key provisions click here and to view the Senate hearing
click here.