This year, Philanthropy Roundtable won its biggest fight yet – leading the effort to strip a proposed private foundation tax hike out of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that would have devastated charitable giving. We also secured donor protections in Georgia and Montana, and worked with allies to stop harmful nonprofit donor disclosure legislation from advancing in states such as Idaho and Montana.
Protecting Private Foundations
This year, Philanthropy Roundtable was the leading voice defending charitable giving on Capitol Hill. We worked closely with members of the Senate to remove a harmful private foundation tax hike from the One Big Beautiful Bill. Had it remained, the proposal would have increased taxes on charities by more than 600% and siphoned a staggering $16 billion in resources from nearly 2,900 charitable foundations to redirect them to a bloated federal bureaucracy.
In addition to meeting with lawmakers and their staffs to educate them on the ramifications of the tax proposal, we also led the effort to circulate coalition letters in both the Senate and House, partnering with other free-market and conservative organizations to amplify the sector’s concerns. These efforts ensured not only that the tax hike was taken out of the bill, but helped guarantee it stayed out.
Safeguarding Donor Intent
This year, Philanthropy Roundtable passed the Safeguarding Endowment Gifts Act in Montana, which granted donors legal standing if their written gift agreements are violated. We also strengthened donor protections in Georgia and introduced legislation in the Oklahoma Senate. Additional details on the legislation may be found here.
The Safeguarding Endowment Gifts Act has been enacted in Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky and Montana, with Iowa and North Carolina already maintaining partial donor standing laws.
Preventing Donor Disclosure
While several states introduced nonprofit donor disclosure bills, the bulk of them were not focused on 501(c)(3) organizations. Idaho and Maine introduced a form of “original source” disclosure bills, requiring organizations to not only disclose their donors, but their donors’ donors.
The New Mexico legislature introduced a bill building on an existing law that already imposed broad reporting mandates on nonprofits that engage in issue advocacy near elections. In it, the term “contributions” was replaced with “donations.” Had it passed, the bill would have applied to all donors, regardless of whether it was their intent to support political activity.
Other states, such as Florida, focused on introducing their own version of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). These laws are intended to promote transparency about activities influencing policy and public interests. But if crafted too broadly, they risk unnecessarily disclosing people who are legitimately donating to charitable causes and thus chilling giving. This is an issue we continue to monitor and will engage where appropriate.
Challenging Proposed Nonprofit Sector Regulations
Lawmakers in South Carolina have introduced several bills seeking to tighten oversight of the nonprofit sector. The most concerning of these bills would encourage voluntary collection of demographic data on nonprofit leadership. This is information nonprofits currently choose whether to share and is just one step away from mandating collection of this data outright.
The state is seeking information such as age, education, gender, race, salary, military service, disability status and leadership experience when nonprofits file certain documents like incorporation papers or registration forms. We’re monitoring similar bills in states such as Hawaii, New Jersey and New York.
In January, a lawmaker in Massachusetts introduced a placeholder bill to regulate donor-advised funds. As of publication, the bill has not been amended to include a specific proposal, but we’re continuing to monitor. Massachusetts is a two-year session.
Multiple states have introduced wealth tax or capital gains tax bills, such as Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York and Washington to name a few. They’ve all been carried over to 2026.
Heading into next year, challenges continue to mount for the charitable sector and the economic prosperity that makes giving possible. In the states, we expect to see a continuation of wealth tax/capital gains tax bills, various forms of donor disclosure bills and policy proposals tightening nonprofit regulation. We’ll also be introducing legislation in key states to strengthen donor protections.
On Capitol Hill, Philanthropy Roundtable will prioritize advancing donor privacy while opposing renewed efforts to impose an excise tax on foundations—such as the proposal included in the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year—and against any regulations that would place unnecessary regulations on DAFs.
