A win-win for nonprofits—and the people who donate to them
Sue Hafkemeyer / President and CEO, Quad Cities Community Foundation
Paul Plagenz / Executive Director, The Moline Foundation
Gary Rowe / Executive Director, Rock Island Community Foundation
Together, we have the chance to inspire charitable giving in Illinois—if it passes the Illinois legislature. As organizations working in the nonprofit sector, today we ask that you lend your voice.
The Illinois GIVES Act will offer a rare opportunity to develop our region’s nonprofit sector, make charitable tax credits available to all who give, and engage a whole new generation in charitable giving. We strongly encourage Illinois residents to ask their legislators to support nonprofit work by voting in favor of SB0172/HB1241. We’ll share details below, but if you read nothing further, know this: Together, we can encourage Illinoisians to give where they live and grow the charitable resources that will sustain Illinois communities in the future.
Nonprofits provide vital programs and services in our communities, from feeding and sheltering people in need to leading youth educational and athletic programs to maintaining public parks and vibrant arts and culture amenities. But do you know that for these organizations to be effective, flexible, and innovative, they need reliable sources of general operating revenue—crucial dollars that are the toughest for nonprofits to raise?
That’s where community foundations come in.
Community foundations are public charities that work with people and companies who donate charitable dollars that will benefit our region year after year (after year!). The Moline Foundation, Quad Cities Community Foundation, and Rock Island Community Foundation all serve the Quad Cities metropolitan and surrounding counties, and there are community foundations serving communities statewide.
Community foundations specialize in establishing and growing endowed funds, which serve as permanent sources of charitable capital for communities. Gifts to endowed funds are invested, and each year a portion of the investment returns are granted to the nonprofit organizations the funds were established to benefit. Nonprofits who have endowed funds can rely on the annual grants for their most pressing needs or promising opportunities. As endowed funds mature, the principal grows, and so do those annual grants. Over time, the annual grants exceed the value of the initial investment.
Our region’s community foundations support the hundreds of nonprofit organizations that benefit from permanent endowment resources—from libraries to community centers, youth engagement to cultural organizations, environmental conservation to mental health services, support for new parents and early childhood education and seniors and everyone in between. Everyone who lives in our community benefits from our region’s nonprofit sector; our lives are strengthened and enriched by the work of nonprofits—each and every day.
The proposed Illinois GIVES Act will establish a 25 percent state income tax credit—available to all Illinois taxpayers at all income levels—for charitable gifts to endowment funds at qualified community foundations. Every nonprofit in the state of Illinois can establish an endowment fund with their local qualified community foundation and their donors can access tax credits for their gifts to those funds.
Nonprofits do not have the power to lobby for tax credits like big business can; they need YOU to tell Illinois leaders that this charitable tax credit is the help nonprofits need. We thank Illinois Senator Mike Halpin for co-sponsoring Senate Bill l0172 and State Representatives Gregg Johnson and Dan Swanson for co-sponsoring House Bill 1241, the Illinois GIVES Act.
Passing the Illinois GIVES Act will create a tax credit that will strengthen our community through giving, keeping charitable dollars in Illinois, for Illinois.