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Philanthropy Southeast regularly provides members with updates on the latest public policy developments in Washington and state capitols around the region, analyzing their possible impact on the charitable sector. If you would like to see an issue featured in a future Public Policy Update, contact Jaci Bertrand at jaci@philanthropysoutheast.org.

Legislation to Allow IRA Rollover to DAFs Introduced in House

A bill that would allow individual retirement account (IRA) holders to make qualified charitable distributions to donor-advised funds was introduced last week in the House.

The legislation (H.R. 2891), which has bipartisan support, was introduced by Reps. Adrian Smith (R-Nebraska) and Jimmy Panetta (D-California), who both serve on the House Ways & Means Committee.

“This bill provides seniors with greater flexibility to direct their charitable giving to support the causes they believe in,” said Smith. “This in turn opens the door to empower more American charities to do more good for our communities.”

Allowing IRA holders to rollover assets to DAFs has long been a policy priority for Philanthropy Southeast and the broader charitable sector.

“Older Americans can’t use their IRA charitable rollovers to give through donor-advised funds,” said Rep. Panetta.  “Our bipartisan bill would fix that by allowing these rollovers to go into DAFs, giving donors the flexibility to give smarter and support a broader range of causes. This commonsense change empowers generosity, strengthens local communities, and reflects how people actually want to give."

The bill has attracted the support of three lawmakers from the Southeast: Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Florida), Terri Sewell (D-Alabama), and Donald Beyer (D-Virginia).

Philanthropy Southeast regularly provides members with updates on the latest public policy developments in Washington and state capitols around the region, analyzing their possible impact on the charitable sector. If you would like to see an issue featured in a future Public Policy Update, contact Jaci Bertrand at jaci@philanthropysoutheast.org.

Save the Date for Our April 29 Webinar on In-District Meetings

Foundations on the Hill isn’t the only way to meet lawmakers and staff in-person – meetings at district or state offices can be just as productive and give you a chance to talk to political leaders on your home turf.

Learn more about these meetings, how to set them up, and how to get the most from them, at our upcoming webinar – join us at 10:00am ET on Tuesday, April 29 to hear from policy experts and Philanthropy Southeast members who have organized their own in-district meetings!

Registration for this webinar will open soon – keep an eye out for further updates!

Supporting Philanthropic Freedom

At its most recent meeting, the Philanthropy Southeast Board of Trustees approved a new policy position that supports the First Amendment rights of funders to support the charitable causes and communities of their choice.

“Philanthropy Southeast believes funders have a First Amendment right to direct their philanthropic efforts toward the charitable causes and communities they choose, and that such freedom is necessary to achieve our goal of an equitable and prosperous South,” the statement reads.

The position statement comes as the charitable sector faces increased scrutiny and criticism around its efforts to address systemic inequity and support historically marginalized groups. 

This includes an executive order released by the White House on January 21 ordering federal agency heads to work with the Attorney General on a report that would identify “[a] plan of specific steps or measures to deter diversity, inclusion, and accessibility programs or principles” and recommend investigations of large companies and organizations, including “foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more.” (More on this below.)

The order gave agencies 120 days, or until May 21, to recommend targets for investigation.

Philanthropy Southeast’s statement notes that efforts to stifle the freedom of philanthropy will not only harm communities but also have negative effects across the sector.

“For the health of our region’s philanthropic sector, it is critical that individuals and organizations are free to determine how and where their resources are directed,” the statement reads. “This freedom of expression, and the diversity of ideas it fosters, also creates a richer environment for our members to learn from one another.”

Philanthropy Southeast is partnering with Candid to encourage members to share their grants data and help provide more accurate, current data on foundation grantmaking.

We ask you to help tell the full story of foundation giving in the Southeast by committing today to share your grants data with Candid. By sharing your grants data, your organization can ensure that Philanthropy Southeast and Candid are able to provide a more complete picture of foundation support for our region and its communities. Data is critical to sharing the impact of philanthropy, especially in a time when we see foundations and nonprofits coming under increasing scrutiny.

In addition to empowering the sector, here are three more benefits to sharing grants data with Candid:

• You can take control of your story. You can share more details about your grants than in your IRS Form 990, which means you can communicate better and faster about what the grant is meant to accomplish and whom it’s meant to serve.

• You are eligible to receive a free single-seat subscription to Foundation Maps, Candid’s premier data visualization tool. This free subscription will help you visualize funding insights and trends and identify opportunities to maximize your giving impact.

• You can learn more about the demographics of your grantees. Candid can help you analyze the demographic composition of the leadership of grantee organizations in your portfolio, for those grantees who have provided this information via their Candid profile. If you are interested in receiving this benefit, please contact brittany.hall@candid.org. 

If your organization is new to data sharing, it’s easy to submit your grants data. You can follow the instructions on this page. Sharing your data can be as simple as following these two steps:

• Export a complete list of your most recent grants data to a spreadsheet following this template.
• Email your grants file to egrants@candid.org.

The link above also includes answers to frequently asked questions and tips on sharing your data.

For additional information, visit the Candid website or contact Stephen Sherman, Senior Director of Engagement and Learning, at stephen@philanthropysoutheast.org.

This year, the Hull Fellows program is celebrating 25 years of connecting and developing philanthropic leaders in the Southeast! To help mark this occasion, we want to hear from our Hull alumni!

Please click here to take this brief Hull Fellows alumni survey by March 28, 2025. It should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

We will share the results of this survey later this year. It is administered by a team from Georgia State University. 

Why Your Feedback Matters:

• Understand Alumni Perspectives: Help us learn from your experiences.
• Engage with Philanthropy Southeast: Your insights will guide our future engagement efforts.
• Serve Future Fellows: Shape the program for the next generation.
• Reconnect: It's a great way to catch up with you!

We are grateful to all who take the time to complete the survey. To show our appreciation, upon completing the survey you will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for a 50 percent discount on registration for Philanthropy Southeast’s 2025 Annual Meeting in New Orleans (November 12-14, 2025).

You can take the survey here.

Thank you for your continued support! With leaders like you, we continue to move toward an equitable and prosperous South.

The 2025 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Survey is open to participants now through May. Since 1980, the annual Grantmaker Salary and Benefits (GSB) Survey has provided the philanthropic sector with the most comprehensive data on foundation staff and board compensation. The annual GSB report is an invaluable tool for grantmakers to inform budgeting, talent recruitment, retention strategies, and personnel policies and practices.

Your participation in the GSB survey is needed — the greater the response, the greater the insights for the sector and for your fellow Philanthropy Southeast members. Through a partnership with the Council on Foundations (COF), Philanthropy Southeast uses data from the GSB to provide custom salary tables for grantmakers from our region each fall (typically early October). The more participants we have, the greater detail we can provide to members in our regional data tables by grantmaker type and asset size.

What are the benefits for participating organizations?

All survey participants (both COF members and non-members) will receive:

• A free copy of the 2025 GSB Report (available upon release)
• A free copy of the 2025 GSB Administrative and Program Expense Tables (available upon release)
• Early access to the report’s data tables
• Access to custom benchmark reports

Reports and data are expected to be released in fall 2025.

How can your foundation participate?

Visit the COF website to learn more and for detailed instructions on how to complete the survey.

First time completing the GSB survey?

See this page for answers to frequently asked questions as well as a list of documents you’ll need to complete the survey. The Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Survey lives in Benchmark Central. If you have never participated in a GSB Survey, email your first and last name, title, and email  address to communications@cof.org in order to obtain a Benchmark Central account. 

Thank you in advance for your participation!

Philanthropy Southeast regularly provides members with updates on the latest public policy developments in Washington and state capitols around the region, analyzing their possible impact on the charitable sector. If you would like to see an issue featured in a future Public Policy Update, contact Jaci Bertrand at jaci@philanthropysoutheast.org.

FOTH at Full Strength: Philanthropy Southeast Hits Capitol Hill

Nearly 50 philanthropic leaders from the Southeast joined colleagues from across the country in Washington last week for Foundations on the Hill, breaking attendance records and delivering a clear message to lawmakers about the importance of their work – and the need to protect it.

The Philanthropy Southeast delegation held dozens of meetings over two days, centered on the importance of not only protecting philanthropy in negotiations on tax reform, but also promoting it by establishing a permanent, universal charitable deduction.

In meetings with lawmakers and staff, FOTH attendees made clear that philanthropic assets, including endowments and donor-advised funds, should stay with the communities they were meant to benefit – and not be targeted as a potential source of tax revenue. The Philanthropy Southeast delegation also called on representatives and senators to sponsor the Charitable Act (H.R. 801 / S. 317) to establish a universal charitable deduction available to all Americans filing a tax return.

The visits made an immediate impact, with a bipartisan group of 22 House members signing on to co-sponsor the Charitable Act following FOTH, including two members from Kentucky, two from Alabama and one each from Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina. In the Senate, Sen. John Boozman (R-Arkansas) has also announced his support.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Washington, especially the state captains who scheduled meetings and led their delegations throughout a busy week!

In the weeks ahead, the Philanthropy Southeast delegation’s work will continue via follow-up messages and outreach in lawmakers’ home districts and states. However, success on the policy front will require others to speak up on behalf of philanthropy – more on that below.

Philanthropy Southeast is partnering with Candid to encourage members to share their grants data and help provide more accurate, current information on foundation grantmaking.

By sharing your grants data, your organization can ensure that Philanthropy Southeast and Candid are able to provide a more complete picture of foundation support for our region and its communities. Data is critical to sharing the impact of philanthropy, especially in a time when we see foundations and nonprofits coming under increasing scrutiny. We ask you to help tell the full story of foundation giving in the Southeast by committing today to share your grants data with Candid.

If your organization is already a data sharing partner, thank you! We encourage you to continue sharing your grants data with Candid in the current year.  

If your organization is new to data sharing, it’s easy to submit your grants data. You can follow the instructions on this page. Sharing your data can be as simple as following these two steps:

• Export a complete list of your most recent grants data to a spreadsheet following this template.
• Email your grants file to egrants@candid.org.

The link above also includes answers to frequently asked questions and tips on sharing your data.

As an added benefit, funders that provide grants data can get free access to Foundation Maps, Candid’s premier visualization tool.  

For additional information, visit the Candid website or contact Stephen Sherman, Senior Director of Engagement and Learning, at stephen@philanthropysoutheast.org.

The 2025 Class of the Janine Lee Learning & Leadership Collaborative recently kicked off a year-long journey that will inspire and equip them to be social change agents who advance equity and justice within their organizations and communities.

This year’s cohort is the second in the history of the program, which was launched in 2023 as the Accelerating Equity Learning Collaborative. It was renamed last year to honor Janine Lee, who served as Philanthropy Southeast’s president and CEO for more than a decade before she passed away in February 2024.

Members of the 2025 Class met for an opening session online last month. Throughout this year, they’ll meet virtually and in locations throughout the Southeast, including St. Petersburg, Florida; Jackson, Mississippi; and Little Rock, Arkansas, before concluding their work at this year’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Congratulations to the members of this year’s class!

Philanthropy Southeast regularly provides members with updates on the latest public policy developments in Washington and state capitols around the region, analyzing their possible impact on the charitable sector. If you would like to see an issue featured in a future Public Policy Update, contact Jaci Bertrand at jaci@philanthropysoutheast.org.

Assessing the Impact of Recent Executive Actions on the Charitable Sector

Philanthropy Southeast has been closely monitoring executive orders and other actions taking place in Washington that could affect philanthropy and the broader charitable sector.

One of President Trump’s first executive orders takes aim at efforts to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA, or DEI) in both the public and private sectors. While this has already resulted in sweeping changes within federal agencies, the impact beyond the federal government, including the philanthropic sector, is still unclear.

Notably, the order requires federal agencies to “identify up to 9 potential investigations of corporations, large nonprofits or associations, or foundations with assets of $500 million or more.” It also requires agencies and the attorney general to “take appropriate action” to advance “anti-DEI” in the private sector.

It is possible these provisions could result in investigations of large foundations or efforts to discourage or halt philanthropic work tied to advancing equity. At this point, however, there is nothing contained in the executive order requiring nonprofit organizations, including foundations, to change how they direct resources.

A separate executive order calls for the termination of all DEI programs in federal agencies including equity-related grants and equity action plans that were formulated during the Biden administration. While not surprising, this demonstrates that federal agencies will not serve as partners to the sector on equity and inclusion work going forward.

The January 27 memo from the Office of Management and Budget, ordering a pause for all federal grant programs, sent shockwaves through the charitable sector. While OMB rescinded the memo on January 29, the agency has also been placed under multiple restraining orders while courts consider the memo’s legality.

A National Council of Nonprofits analysis of these moves found that “[n]onprofits partnering with federal government agencies or receiving federal funding, especially through government grants and contracts, may experience longer wait times and slower processing, loss of points of contacts or difficulty reaching them, and increased strain on relationships,” and that nonprofits “will no longer have direct White House connections through the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.”

Nonprofit organizations working with immigrant, refugee and LGBTQ+ communities may also be under additional strain due to other executive orders affecting those groups.

The Alliance for Justice has published a guide for foundations and other nonprofits on responding to these executive orders and others. The list includes:

• Publicly criticizing actions that run counter to your organization’s values. Since President Trump and his appointees are not candidates for public office, this does not violate rules on nonprofit advocacy.
• Reach out directly to administration officials to tell them how these actions affect your work and the communities you support.
• Directing funding toward organizations that are under added strain or experiencing gaps in funding, as well as organizations that engage in advocacy themselves.

Since the start of the second Trump administration, we have seen a flurry of actions that could have lasting effects on your work, your nonprofit partners, and the issues you focus on in your communities.

Executive orders and directives from other agencies, such as a move to freeze federal grant programs are being issued at a rapid pace – and many are being challenged in court just as quickly, making it unclear where things stand at any given moment. Meanwhile, Congress is also working on legislation for this year, including tax reform, that stands to have a significant impact on our sector.

To help you keep up with the latest news, we will be releasing updates on public policy on a more frequent basis going forward, as well as more frequent Policy Alerts. These messages will also be posted on our blog, Engage. If you don’t already receive our Public Policy Update or alerts and would like to, please contact Stephen Sherman at stephen@philanthropysoutheast.org.

We will also include more articles on the latest policy developments affecting the charitable sector in our weekly newsletter, Connect.

As news develops, we will be updating this blog post with links to resources and other items provided by Philanthropy Southeast and other organizations in the charitable sector. If you know of a helpful item that isn’t listed here, please let us know by contacting David Miller at david@philanthropysoutheast.org.

Philanthropy Southeast Public Policy Updates & Alerts

• Public Policy Update – April 2, 2025
• Public Policy Update – March 5, 2025
• Public Policy Update – February 6, 2025
• Public Policy Update – January 21, 2025

Member Responses & Resources

• Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta: Nonprofit and Donor Resource Hub
• Community Foundation of Greater Memphis: Supporting Vulnerable Populations

Resources & Other Links:

• Philanthropy Southeast: State fact sheets for meetings with lawmakers
• National Council of Nonprofits: Executive Orders Affecting Charitable Nonprofits
• Associated Press: Tracking the Lawsuits Against Donald Trump's Executive Actions
• Nonprofit Quarterly: What's at Stake with Threatened Federal Cuts to CDFIs?
• Grantmakers for Effective Organizations: Supporting Our Communities: Key Strategies for Navigating Federal Funding Threats
• Candid: How Reliant Are Nonprofits on Governent Grants?
• Nonprofit Quarterly: Nonprofit Legal Compliance in an Unfriendly Political Environment
• Education Law Center: How Much Federal Education Aid Could Your State Lose?
• Urban Institute: What Is the Financial Risk of Nonprofits Losing Government Grants?