Giving Tuesday and your role as a tax advisor

Giving Tuesday, the global day of generosity celebrated annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, serves as a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday as a way to give back. Since its inception in 2012 by New York’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, this movement has evolved into a worldwide phenomenon, raising billions and inspiring collective action.

For tax professionals and accountants, Giving Tuesday offers more than just an opportunity to write a check or encourage their clients to donate. Your specialized financial knowledge and direct connection to your clients’ wealth provides a bridge to “radical generosity,” helping transform donations into sustained, impactful philanthropy.

Understanding Giving Tuesday’s importance

Giving Tuesday harnesses the holiday season’s energy and directs it toward positive social change. It provides nonprofits with crucial funding for year-end fundraising, and more importantly, establishes a culture of philanthropy as an everyday part of life. Giving Tuesday highlights every act of kindness, whether a financial contribution, donation of goods, or simply advocating for a cause. It’s a day that moves people to set aside money for charity, ensuring that nonprofits can highlight their mission and gain new supporters during a concentrated 24-hour window.

Innovative fundraising: Real stories

We asked several Intuit® Tax Pro Center authors to give us some real-life examples of giving back in their firm or stories about their clients. Here’s what they had to say:

“I’d love to highlight my brother and business partner, Joseph L. Boscia Jr., who turned his passion for cars into a powerful force for good,” said Nick Boscia, CPA, EA, managing partner of Boscia & Boscia PC and The Balanced CPA. “Joe—known in the community as “TaxKing”—recently hosted the 4th Annual Cars & Social Fundraiser in Ocean Township, NJ, benefiting the Unterberg Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center. The event brought together more than 80 exotic cars and 150 attendees, and raised more than $20,000 to support the hospital’s Pediatric Food Insecurity Program, pushing total donations past $50,000 since it began in 2022. As brothers and co-owners of our firm, it’s been inspiring to see Joe use his entrepreneurial energy and network to make a tangible difference in our local community.”

“Instead of collecting monies directly for certain speaking engagements, I have some clients who ask their own clients and customers to donate the speaking engagement monies to their favorite charity,” said April Moore, MBA, owner of Moore Accounting, LLC. “If my clients typically itemize their personal returns, I encourage them to collect their fees and make the donations themselves in order to increase their itemized deductions.”

“We’ve got a client, Jonathan Miller Architects, who is quite generous with their business,” said Ben Curtis, CPA, president and partner of Good Measure. Ben listed some of the activities his client has done in the past year, and on a recurring basis:

• Supported at a fundraiser for an after school care program for at risk children, Thrive (who is also a client of ours themselves!).
• They also regularly donate to another East TN children’s care organization, Emerald Youth Foundation.
• They regularly donate to the Knoxville Museum of Art.
• They regularly provide school supplies to local schools that are in need.

“They’re wonderful and we love supporting them!” said Ben.

“In the cannabis industry as a part of the retail cannabis licenses, it is mandated to make donations to local nonprofits; you might ask, ‘Is this in the spirit of giving?; said. Bruce Andersen, CPA, MS-Tax, MBA, owner of Andersen CPA Firm. “My response is that it is a very clever way of instilling charity into the cannabis industry. I will only highlight California where I am most familiar.  One California city issued its first four licenses that were approved by the city council. As a part of the license, the city council required the licenses to make contributions equal to 5% of the gross sales, paid out quarterly. The council chose five different nonprofits as the recipients of the donations. The five charities were small, local activities which generally never were able to raise enough donations on their own.  The charities included the city’s only high school band and another was the city’s high school art program. In another city, the charities selected were parks and recreation facilities.”

Providing tax advisory to your clients

While you likely provide some kind of pro-bono services and give back in various ways, their greatest power throughout the year is providing tax advisory for a number of areas, including generating and directing charitable dollars. Here are some examples of how you can turn your tax advisory expertise into tangible acts of kindness.

1. The tax refund philanthropy model

A simple conversation during tax preparation can turn an unexpected windfall into a charitable gift. You can encourage clients to dedicate a portion of their tax refund directly to a registered charity.

Example: A tax preparer might add an optional line item to their annual tax organizer asking, “If you are receiving a refund, would you like to pledge a percentage, such as 5% or 10%, of that amount to your charity of choice?” This simple nudge transforms a routine transaction into a moment of intentional giving, making a substantial donation seamless for the client.

2. Creating a personal, mission-driven private foundation

For tax pros who work with high-net-worth clients, starting a private family foundation offers a way to create a lasting philanthropic legacy. This is a complex undertaking, requiring the founder to work with legal and tax experts to set up the entity and navigate strict compliance rules.

Example: A tax pro or accountant who survived childhood cancer might establish a foundation focused on pediatric oncology research or support for families navigating the disease. This professional uses their deep understanding of corporate structure, compliance, and asset management to govern the foundation, turning a personal experience into an engine for research funding that far exceeds what a single individual could donate annually.

3. Strategic bunching and Donor Advised Fund counseling

You can help clients maximize their charitable contributions by advising on tax-efficient strategies. The concept of “bunching” involves consolidating several years of donations into a single tax year to exceed the standard deduction threshold, allowing a client to itemize deductions and claim a larger tax benefit.

Example: Financial professionals often recommend Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) as a tool for bunching. A client contributes the bunched donation to the DAF in a high-income year, receiving an immediate tax deduction. They can then recommend grants from the DAF to charities over time, fulfilling their charitable intent for years to come. This provides a mechanism for sustained giving that begins with a strategic lump-sum contribution.

4. Using appreciated assets

Instead of donating cash, you can advise a client to donate appreciated assets, such as stocks or real estate held for more than a year. This advanced strategy offers a dual tax benefit: The donor avoids paying capital gains tax on the asset’s appreciation and can claim a charitable deduction for the full fair market value. This strategy can increase the available funds for charity by up to 20%, compared to selling the asset and donating the cash proceeds.

The generosity mandate

Giving Tuesday is a reminder that the finance world is not just about maximizing profit; it’s about optimizing resources for good. By employing their technical knowledge, tax and accounting pros can amplify their clients’ generosity, ensuring more dollars flow effectively to the organizations to drive change.

You are not just a preparer of a tax forms. You can be an architect of philanthropic strategy, turning complex financial planning into a powerful, year-round force for global generosity.