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The Quiet Type: Help clients who prefer to give anonymously
At the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, we’re dedicated to helping your clients achieve their charitable goals. We’re honored to serve as your trusted resource for tax-efficient giving strategies, help your clients maximize their charitable impact, and support your clients as they build lasting philanthropic legacies. As you continue (or begin) conversations about charitable giving with your clients, one important question often arises: How would your clients like their giving to be acknowledged and recognized?
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The Art of Giving: Help your clients give gifts of artwork
If you’ve noticed a surprising uptick in recent years among your younger clients investing in artwork, it is not your imagination! A survey of 1,007 U.S. high net worth individuals (each with at least $3 million in investable assets) found that 83% of respondents aged 43 and under said they currently own or would like to own art — compared with only 34% of those older than 43.
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Timing is Everything: Your clients’ 2025 charitable giving plans
It’s never been easy to navigate the ever-shifting tax rules to help clients structure charitable gifts, and now it’s even trickier. Major changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law on July 4, 2025, are creating complexity, opportunity, and, for some, urgency. The OBBBA reshapes both how much a client can deduct for charitable contributions and which clients can benefit from these deductions in the first place. Indeed, your clients might have read a recent Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) outlining major tax planning themes related to charitable giving.
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Meet CFGB Outstanding Professional Advisor Gregory D. Hyde
Gregory D. Hyde Since 1980 Gregory D. Hyde has focused his law practice on estate planning with an emphasis on charitable giving. It was through this work that he got connected with the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham as a professional advisor. Hyde was recently honored at the Alabama Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ National Philanthropy Day as the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham Outstanding Professional Advisor.
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Serving Our Community: A Q&A with Caroline Fuerniss
Caroline Fuerniss, Professional Advisory Committee Chair Caroline Fuerniss is a proud Birmingham native who’s always searching for ways to serve her community. She’s held leadership roles with the Crisis Center, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and Rotaract Club of Birmingham. Currently, she’s a member of the Ballet Guild of Birmingham and she’s on the Women’s Advisory Team at Cathedral Church of the Advent. But she wanted to do more.
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Rethinking Inherited IRAs
As you build your estate plan and consider how to provide for your adult children, keep in mind that naming children as the beneficiary of an IRA or other qualified plan should maybe not be automatic.
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Recognition or anonymity: Which one's for you?
The Community Foundation is committed to working with you and your family to fulfill your charitable goals, whether those goals relate to making an impact, leaving a legacy, saving money on taxes, expressing gratitude, or a combination of objectives. If you have not yet established a fund at the Community Foundation (and even if you have!), it might interest you to know that a donor-advised fund or other type of fund not only offers flexibility to meet your giving goals, but also gives you options for recognition or anonymity, depending on your goals and preferences.
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How “catch-up” contributions can boost clients’ giving
For professional advisors who regularly work with charitable clients, you are well aware of the tremendous benefits to both clients and charities when a client names a charity, such as a fund at the Community Foundation, as the beneficiary of an IRA or other qualified retirement plan.