#charitable-giving

Charitable Giving

Donation strategies, tax-deductible contributions, and qualified charitable organizations

July 16, 20268 min read

Professional Organizer Bookkeeping: Package Pricing, Client Property Liability, and Why the Donation Deduction Isn't Yours

A bookkeeping guide for professional organizers covering how to book package deposits and maintenance retainers as unearned revenue, the insurance clients expect (general liability, E&O, workers' comp — roughly $1,500–$3,000/year), why the Goodwill donation deduction belongs to the client rather than the organizer, and when a day helper must be classified W-2 instead of 1099.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingsmall-businessself-employment

July 12, 20269 min read

Program-Related Investments: How Private Foundations Recycle Charitable Capital

Program-related investments let a private foundation count loans, equity stakes, or guarantees toward its mandatory 5% annual payout, then reclaim the capital as it's repaid, but PRIs to non-charitable recipients trigger IRS expenditure-responsibility rules with a 20% excise tax and personal manager penalties for noncompliance.

Mike Thrift

charitable-givingtax-compliancecompliance

July 9, 20268 min read

Accepting Cryptocurrency Donations: A Nonprofit's Guide to Gift Acceptance, Valuation, and IRS Substantiation

Nonprofits accepting cryptocurrency gifts over $5,000 cannot rely on exchange prices for tax substantiation — IRS Chief Counsel Advice 202302012 requires a qualified appraisal, and ASU 2023-08 now mandates fair-value accounting for any crypto a nonprofit holds past the point of receipt.

Mike Thrift

nonprofitcharitable-givingcryptocurrency

July 9, 20269 min read

Your Nonprofit Just Received a Bitcoin Donation. Now What?

A practical guide for nonprofits accepting cryptocurrency donations — how to write a gift acceptance policy for digital assets, apply FASB's ASU 2023-08 fair-value accounting rules, and meet IRS substantiation requirements including Form 8283 signatures, qualified appraisals over $5,000, and the Form 8282 three-year disposition rule.

Mike Thrift

nonprofitcryptocurrencycharitable-giving

July 9, 20268 min read

How Nonprofits Should Value and Record Gifts-in-Kind Under ASC 958-605

ASU 2020-07 requires nonprofits to present contributed nonfinancial assets as a separate line item, disaggregated by category, with disclosed valuation methods. This guide covers the fair-value rules of ASC 958-605 — which volunteer services are recordable, how to value donated goods, professional services, and facility use, the offsetting journal entries, and the $25,000 Form 990 Schedule M threshold.

Mike Thrift

nonprofitcharitable-givingfinancial-reporting

July 9, 20269 min read

Recording Gifts-in-Kind: A Nonprofit Accounting Guide to ASU 2020-07

Under ASU 2020-07 (ASC 958-605), nonprofits must record donated goods, services, and facility use at fair value on a separate line item and disclose valuation methodology by category, or risk an auditor flagging the financial statements.

Mike Thrift

nonprofitauditaccounting

July 8, 20267 min read

The Fiduciary Duties Every Nonprofit Board Member Must Know

Nonprofit directors carry three legal fiduciary duties — care, loyalty, and obedience — and courts have held boards personally liable for failing to ask basic questions about how the organization spent its money.

Mike Thrift

nonprofitcompliancecharitable-giving

May 19, 202610 min read

The 0.5% AGI Floor on Charitable Gifts: Preserving Your Deduction in 2026 With Bunching, DAFs, and QCDs

Starting in 2026, OBBBA imposes a 0.5% AGI floor on itemized charitable contributions and caps top-bracket deductions at 35 cents per dollar. Bunching gifts, funding a donor-advised fund, and making qualified charitable distributions from an IRA recover most of the lost benefit for typical itemizing donors.

Mike Thrift

charitable-givingtax-planningtax-deductions

May 18, 202611 min read

The Charity Deduction You Get Without Itemizing: A 2026 Guide to the New $1,000 / $2,000 Above-the-Line Write-Off

Starting in 2026, taxpayers who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 ($2,000 for joint filers) of cash gifts to qualified public charities under new IRC Section 170(p) — cash only, no donor-advised funds, no carryforward, and the same $250 documentation rules as itemizers.

Mike Thrift

charitable-givingtax-deductionstax-planning

May 18, 20269 min read

The Standard Deduction Is Now Permanent: How OBBBA Reshapes the Itemize-vs-Standard Decision for 2026

How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the doubled standard deduction permanent, raised the SALT cap to $40,000, added a 0.5% AGI charitable floor, and stacked a $6,000 senior bonus deduction — with concrete math for the 2026 itemize-versus-standard decision.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-planningtax-deductions

May 17, 202615 min read

Form 1099-R Box 7 Distribution Codes, Decoded

Box 7 of Form 1099-R holds a one- or two-character code that decides whether a retirement distribution is taxable, penalty-free, or hit with a 10% early-withdrawal penalty. This guide explains every numeric and letter code, including the new Code Y for qualified charitable distributions, and the coding errors that overcharge taxpayers.

Mike Thrift

taxretirementpersonal-finance

May 17, 202613 min read

NIL Collectives and 501(c)(3) Status: What IRS Memorandum AM 2023-004 Means for Donors

IRS Memorandum AM 2023-004 holds that most nonprofit NIL collectives fail the 501(c)(3) operational test because compensating student-athletes is substantial private benefit, not charitable activity — meaning donor contributions are often not deductible.

Mike Thrift

nonprofitcharitable-givingtax-compliance

Start Free→Documentation