Congress has now passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, perhaps the most significant piece of tax legislation for the nonprofit sector in the past 100 years. Make no mistake, we believe this legislation undermines civil society and exacerbates inequality, placing our country on the wrong path – but the passage of a single bill does not signal the end of our fight or resolve.
We are grateful for the broad cross-section of charities from almost every community that raised their voice to influence this piece of legislation. Charitable organizations across the country successfully advocated to keep several damaging provisions out of the final bill, including a repeal of the Johnson Amendment, and our work is just beginning.
In 2017, we came together as a sector behind a universal charitable deduction and educated lawmakers on why it is a good policy for the sector. There will be tax bills introduced and passed in 2018 and beyond. We will build on the strong advocacy coalitions to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to give more in support of their communities.
Next year, we will also launch efforts to correct other parts of the tax bill that will now make it more difficult for charities to serve their communities, as well as join with our partners in advocacy efforts on other critical issues, including federal spending, preparations for the 2020 Census, and continuing to protect nonprofits from partisan politics.
Together, we demonstrated the power that a strong, unified nonprofit voice can wield in public policy. In 2018, we will be launching a new policy newsletter, which will bring you the latest action alerts, stories from the field, and policy news. Please sign up and join us in the fight to strengthen civil society and engage in the important policy conversations ahead. We cannot do it without you.
Dan Cardinali is the president and CEO of Independent Sector.
