Leadership Briefings on Reforming Philanthropy #3

Leadership Briefings on Reforming Philanthropy

Within the movement for philanthropic reform, the national Philanthropy Project takes the particular frame of improving philanthropy through public policy regulation and tax reform. We applaud the motives and actions of authentic donors, while investigating the broader “industry” of philanthropy and strategies of self interested actors abusing philanthropic vehicles for goals other than the public good. Note the scale of the opportunity in 2025:

$1.6 Trillion held in private foundations
$326 Billion in donor-advised funds

By 2026 this will total $2 trillion in trapped value for which donors already received tax deductions, but too much is sitting in financial institutions rather than actively serving the public good.

We’re bringing a set of three leadership briefings on philanthropic reform to the nonprofit/philanthropic community to take the discussion further. Each briefing will identify problem areas and their negative consequences, address potential regulations and legislative solutions, and then explore how to get involved in the growing movement:

Leadership Briefing on Reforming Philanthropy #3

Fixing Philanthropy and the Tax Code

Thursday, July 23, 2026
1 pm Pacific / 3 pm Central / 4 pm Eastern

Americans give roughly $600 billion annually to nonprofits, and the federal government forgoes roughly $55–80 billion annually in tax revenue from charitable deductions. A defining feature is that the tax subsidy is much larger for high-income itemizers and close to zero for most non-itemizers. What are the goals of tax incentives for giving, and are those goals being achieved?

This session is the third in a series of Leadership Briefings on changing philanthropy. The first focused on private foundations; the second on donor-advised funds, and this session on tax policy guiding giving and grantmaking.

Speakers

Ray Madoff, Professor, Boston College Law School and author of The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy
Alex Reid, Partner at Baker Hostetler, former Chair, American Bar Association Tax-Exempt Organizations Committee
Jon Pratt, Co-Chair, Philanthropy Project, board member of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and former CEO, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
Jan Masaoka, Co-Chair, Philanthropy Project, moderator

Webinar Series Co-Sponsors

by Philanthropy Project