Q

A donor age 70½ or older can instruct their IRA custodian to send up to a set annual limit (indexed for inflation, $105,000 as of 2024) directly to a qualifying 501(c)(3) — never passing through the donor’s own hands — and exclude that amount from their taxable income entirely, even though they don’t itemize the gift as a deduction.

For nonprofits, QCDs have become an increasingly important gift vehicle as more donors reach retirement age, since the tax benefit exists independent of whether the donor itemizes deductions — a meaningful advantage after the 2017 tax law changes made itemizing less common for many households.

The transaction has to come straight from the IRA custodian to the charity to qualify; a check the donor receives and then forwards themselves doesn’t count. Gift officers and finance teams both need to recognize QCD deposits correctly and issue the specific acknowledgment language donors need for their tax records.

A board can’t approve the annual budget, authorize a loan, or accept a major restricted gift with contingencies unless quorum is met — typically a simple majority of seated board members, though bylaws can set a different threshold. A vote taken without quorum isn’t just irregular; it’s not a valid board action at all.

This matters more for finance than it might seem: budget approvals, audit engagement letters, and major contracts often require documented board authorization, and an auditor reviewing governance controls will check that quorum was actually met and recorded in the minutes for those decisions, not just assumed.

Smaller or growing boards sometimes struggle to consistently reach quorum, which can quietly stall financial approvals — a reason many organizations build remote/proxy participation into their bylaws specifically to keep governance (and the financial decisions that depend on it) moving.