Answer: not much. Less than two weeks for age 70.5+ donors to scramble to direct up to $100,000 from their IRAs. If they hadn’t taken their RMDs yet, they can get credit for RMDs. But, if they already took their RMDs, too late.
Yes, fundraisers should be getting out the word (as soon as the President signs it! – that’s my advice because you can guarantee he will sign it), calling previous IRA donors or those who have expressed interest, and email blasts to spread the word.
To me, this is a very bad sign for future extensions of the IRA rollover. Where is the extra year we usually see? Or, the “swap-out” provision letting people swap out their RMDs with a check to your org? Or, an extra month (January) to make IRA gifts since it is passing so close to the end of the year? Nothing. Just less than two weeks for charities to promote and donors to get recommendations going.
I am wondering if the cost of giving people a better opportunity to use this law was more than Congress was willing to give. We can’t hide the fact that IRA charitable rollovers take money out of the government’s coffers and put money into charitable coffers. And, when it comes to legislation, the cost means a lot.
Let’s hope this was just an anomaly of a lame duck President fighting with Congress or something like that.
By the way, I apologize to readers who saw my initial forwarding of Campbell and Co.’s premature announcement. I saw it, tried to confirm (but couldn’t), and hoped they knew what they were doing. They didn’t.
We went ahead and sent announcement to all of our legacy society members and prospects who have email, as well as those donors who have made qualified transfers in the past; a few inquiries so far and hope many others are using our sample letter to request transfers. Those who did these before seem the most likely to do it again and in some cases purposefully waited to take their RMD until now–generous, savvy folks, one of whom told me she looked forward to the Medicare savings.