2022 Fly-In Day to Renew and Expand the Universal Charitable Deduction

Opportunities to push major fundraising and giving legislation don’t happen all the time. So when these opportunities do come about, we need to take advantage of them and get our message out to key legislators.

We’ve seen it happen this year with the Legacy IRA Act. After two years of work, we’re so close to seeing this expansion of the Charitable IRA Rollover provision signed into law. The bill has been passed by the House and was just approved by the Senate Finance committee as part of larger retirement packages.

Most importantly, the text of the Legacy IRA Act in both chambers is almost identical.

• Both the House and Senate version allow for a one-time, $50,000 distribution to a charity from an IRA rollover through a charitable gift annuity, charitable remainder unitrust or charitable annuity trust.
• Both versions also index for inflation the limit (currently $100,000) for rollover gifts of cash—the only difference is that the House version begins the indexing after the bill is signed into law; the Senate version starts indexing after 2023.

We’re very optimistic that with both parties wanting to enact retirement legislation this year, we’ll see the IRA Legacy Act signed into law. That would be a HUGE win for the fundraising profession and all of philanthropy.

That leaves our second major legislative priority: the universal charitable deduction, and I have some big news on that issue as well.

The Charitable Giving Coalition, which AFP helped create and continues to provide logistical and administrative support to, will be holding a 2022 DC Fly-In Day Event on Nov. 15 and 16 to support the renewal and expansion of the universal charitable deduction. The tentative schedule is to have meetings from noon to 5 p.m. on Nov. 15, a reception that evening with Congressional supporters, and then additional meetings all day Nov. 16.

You might be thinking, “Wait, a lobby day AFTER the U.S. elections? Will that be effective?” But we can point to a number of years when so-called “lame duck” Congressional sessions got a lot of work done and approved a number of bills.

Congress will likely be looking to help donors after a limited version of the universal charitable deduction ($300 for individuals/$600 for couples filing joint) expired at the end of last year. We think there’s a lot of value in meeting with members of Congress and their staffs in-person about the key universal charitable deduction bill, the Universal Giving Pandemic Response and Recovery Act (S. 618 and H.R. 1704). This event also follows up nicely with our AFP Chapter Lobby Week meetings from earlier this year, and of course, it aligns with National Philanthropy Day, Nov. 15.

If you can make it, I hope you’ll plan on joining us Nov. 15 and 16 for the 2022 DC Fly-in Day Event in support of the universal charitable deduction.  More information to follow as details and schedules are finalized, and please email paffairs@afpglobal.org if you plan on attending so we can keep you updated on all aspects of the event.

It’s been a great year for public policy and advocacy for AFP, and we have a great opportunity to keep the momentum going. I look forward to seeing you in November!

As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments on our public policy work or any other aspects of AFP! Email me at Mike.Geiger@afpglobal.org or say hi on Twitter at @AFPMikeGeiger.

Mike Geiger, MBA, CPA