Form 990 Privacy Objections and Answers
October 17, 2026
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We’ve heard every one of these. At conferences, in webinars, over the phone, and from members of the public who found their organization on our
We’ve heard every one of these. At conferences, in webinars, over the phone, and from members of the public who found their organization on our
2026 is the first year for several major changes to the charitable deduction, and the rules are different from last year’s. Non-itemizers can now deduct cash gifts, itemizers face a new 0.5% floor, and top-bracket donors see a 35% cap. Here are the year-end deadlines for every gift type, from stock and wires to QCDs and donor-advised funds, plus the planning moves that matter most before December 31. Miss a deadline, and you may miss a deduction for 2026.
Your donors have attorneys for the money. Who’s handling the meaning? As $124 trillion passes to U.S. heirs, Cliff Thomas, CAP®, lays out three ways families can pass on their values. The gift officers who start that conversation will be the ones the next generation calls. Everyone else will hear about the gift from the estate attorney.
Volunteering on a nonprofit board can protect you. It does not excuse you. State attorneys general, the IRS, fellow directors and even the nonprofit itself can hold board members accountable. Here is who enforces the rules, what really protects you, and the four situations that create personal liability: self-dealing, overpaid insiders, ignored red flags and unpaid payroll taxes.
Most nonprofit board members approve a Form 990 they never read and ignore the largest gifts their organization will ever receive. That’s attendance, not governance. This guide explains what your fiduciary duties of care, loyalty and obedience require, from financial oversight and conflicts of interest to major gifts, planned giving and endowment management, plus 12 questions every board should ask.
Donors are reading your Form 990, and most of them never call. What they want to know is whether your nonprofit is planning for the next 50 years. Major gifts matter, but planned giving belongs at the start of your fundraising strategy because it shows you are planning for the future. Here’s why wealthy donors, foundations and government funders all judge you the same way, and how to show them your future.
Most nonprofits have never read the document their biggest donors read first. Your Form 990 lists what you paid people, not what you accomplished, and major donors, foundations, and estate attorneys are reading it right now. You can’t change the filing. You can claim your nonprofit profile free, add your mission, your outcomes, and your legacy giving contact, and stop letting a tax form speak for you.
The Form 990 asks what an organization spent last year. It does not ask what its leaders did before they got here. Treasury is weighing new disclosure rules for nonprofit officers. They address the wrong half of the problem — and the public record still won’t show you the difference.
A donor just printed an article listing eight hard questions to ask her favorite charity before naming it in her will. Yours may be on that list. In a few weeks she’s going to call, and one conversation will decide it. Most nonprofits fail this test and never learn they failed — because a bequest that quietly goes elsewhere sends no rejection letter.
Charitable giving hit a record $617 billion — and almost everyone read it wrong. Bequests, barely a tenth of all giving, drove a third of the growth, powered by a handful of estates and a market that inflated them. This isn’t generosity spreading. It’s wealth concentrating. The money is moving into a few institutions that keep getting stronger, while the corner nonprofit gets crowded out. A wealth transfer, yes — but mostly a power transfer.
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