For many people in their seventies and beyond, an individual retirement account (IRA) holds money they do not need to live on. A qualified charitable distribution (QCD) lets you send part of that money directly from your IRA to a charity you care about, without it passing through your taxable income. If you are 70½ or older, you can direct a QCD to a fund at the Fond du Lac Area Foundation and support the causes that matter to you across Fond du Lac County and beyond.
Our team is happy to walk through each step with you, and with your advisor if you work with one.
Once you reach 70½, you can ask the company that holds your IRA, known as your IRA custodian, to send money directly to a qualified charity. Because the money goes straight to the charity rather than to you, it is excluded from your taxable income for the year. That is what makes a QCD different from taking a withdrawal and then writing a check.
This can be especially helpful if you take the standard deduction, because a QCD is excluded from your income whether you itemize or not. Lowering your taxable income may also affect other parts of your finances, such as Medicare premiums or the taxation of Social Security benefits, and your advisor can tell you whether that applies in your case.
A QCD can also count toward your required minimum distribution (RMD), the amount the IRS requires you to withdraw from a traditional IRA each year once you reach a certain age. Directing some or all of that amount to charity meets the requirement without adding it to your income. The age at which required distributions begin is set by current federal rules, so please confirm it with your advisor.
Four requirements determine whether a transfer counts as a QCD.
A QCD comes from an IRA. If your retirement savings are in an employer plan, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), your advisor can help you understand your options. Because a QCD is excluded from your income, you do not also claim a charitable deduction for the same dollars.
The Foundation does not provide tax or legal advice. Please consult your advisor.
Five of the fund types at the Foundation can receive a QCD, and each can be opened with a QCD or added to with one.
One or more specific organizations you name in the fund agreement, including a church or a national nonprofit
Yes
A cause you care about, such as food security, the arts, or youth, with grants awarded through the Foundation's competitive grant process
Yes
Students from Fond du Lac County, selected against criteria you recommend
Yes
Current needs in the county, with grants directed by the Foundation's Board of Directors
Yes
A nonprofit's own endowment, held and invested at the Foundation
Yes
Grants you recommend over time
No. Federal rules exclude donor advised funds
If you would like to stay involved in where your giving goes, a designated fund that supports several organizations is a thoughtful option. You name the organizations once, in the fund agreement, and the Foundation distributes grants to them over time. This is the most common QCD structure the Foundation sees.
A QCD can also go directly to a single nonprofit you already support. Our goal is to help you find the approach that best fits your goals, and when giving directly to a nonprofit is the better fit, we're happy to have that conversation. A fund at the Foundation can be especially helpful when you want one gift to support several organizations, to continue your giving over a period of years, or to create a scholarship. See Types of Funds and Donor Advised Funds for more.
Let us know whether you would like to open a new fund or add to an existing one, and which organizations or causes you have in mind. We will confirm that the fund can receive a QCD and share the details your custodian needs: the Foundation's legal name, Fond du Lac Area Foundation; its tax identification number; and its mailing address, 1020 S. Main Street, Suite E, Fond du Lac, WI 54935.
Most custodians have a form for charitable distributions, and some accept a letter. Ask them to make the check payable to the Fond du Lac Area Foundation, include the fund name, and send it to the Foundation. Some custodians mail the check to the account owner to forward; that works as long as the check is payable to the Foundation.
Custodians process requests on their own schedules, and December is a busy month. If you want the gift to count for the current year, we suggest starting in November.
When the gift arrives, we deposit it to the fund and send you a written acknowledgment letter. If you are opening a new fund, we will complete the fund agreement with you.
Most funds can be established with an initial contribution of $1,000. If you would prefer not to name a specific purpose, your gift can support the Community Fund, the Foundation's general fund for Fond du Lac County. To start a new fund, see How to Start a Charitable Fund.
One donor in Fond du Lac used a QCD to open a designated fund supporting organizations that help women, people in need, and local food pantries. She started with a modest gift and has added to the fund from her IRA each year, building something her family can continue after her.
In fiscal year 2025, the Foundation awarded $3.7 million in grant dollars and $409,528 in scholarship dollars, and 32 new funds were established.
A qualified charitable distribution is a gift sent directly from your IRA custodian to a qualified charity. You must be 70½ or older. The amount is excluded from your taxable income, and it can count toward your required minimum distribution. In Fond du Lac County, you can direct a QCD to a designated, field of interest, scholarship, unrestricted, or agency fund at the Fond du Lac Area Foundation.
Yes. The IRS sets an annual limit per person and indexes it, so the figure changes from year to year. Because it changes, we do not list a figure on this page. Please confirm the current-year limit at IRS.gov or with your advisor before you give.
No. Federal rules do not allow donor advised funds, private foundations, or supporting organizations to receive a QCD. Designated, field of interest, scholarship, unrestricted, and agency funds at the Foundation may be eligible. You may, however, name a donor advised fund as a beneficiary of your IRA, which is a different kind of gift with its own rules. See Planned Giving and the Legacy Society.
It can. If you are required to take a distribution in a given year, a QCD made that year can count toward it, and the amount is excluded from your income.
Either. A QCD can open a new designated, field of interest, scholarship, unrestricted, or agency fund, or add to an existing fund of those types. Most funds can be established with an initial contribution of $1,000. We invite you to contact us before the transfer so the fund agreement and your custodian's paperwork line up.
Keep the acknowledgment letter we send when your gift arrives. Your custodian's year-end form will show the distribution as a regular withdrawal, so you or your tax preparer report it as a QCD on your return, with our letter as the supporting record. The Foundation does not provide tax or legal advice. Please consult your advisor.
We invite you to reach out before you contact your IRA custodian. In one conversation, we can confirm the right fund type, share the details your custodian needs, and help you decide whether a fund at the Foundation or a gift directly to a nonprofit is the better fit. Our team is here to help. If you work with an attorney, CPA, or financial planner, see For Professional Advisors. For other ways to give from retirement assets, including naming a fund as the beneficiary of your IRA, see Planned Giving and the Legacy Society and Ways to Give.
