Two methods for motivating faculty giving

In 2020, the combination of fear of illness due to the COVID-19 pandemic, volatility of the financial markets, violence, social isolation and political unrest left many Americans shaken. These difficulties certainly affected university faculty members, who, in addition, often had to pivot to online delivery and administration. A natural response, when facing adversity, is to reduce charitable giving in order to save for emergencies of personal or family need. This choice might also reduce charitable giving by faculty members to the universities where they teach. In addition, faculty members might personally still be adjusting to the tax changes implemented by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. TCJA essentially doubled the standard deduction available to US taxpayers. Because of the increase, fewer faculty members are itemising deductions. Therefore, these faculty members no longer receive any federal tax benefit from making charitable contributions. To motivate charitable giving among university faculty, university foundations and departments of advancement should educate faculty members about the tax saving strategies of philanthropic giving to their universities by making qualified charitable distributions directly from retirement accounts and/or using donor-advised funds.