The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, reshapes charitable giving tax rules. Non-itemizers can now deduct up to $1,000/$2,000 in cash gifts. Itemizers face a new 0.5% AGI floor and a 35% benefit cap. A $1,700 federal tax credit for K–12 scholarship donations begins in 2027. Corporations must exceed a 1% income floor before deducting gifts. Smart planning strategies include bunching gifts and leveraging donor-advised funds.

Bequests don’t begin with documents, dashboards, or digital forms. They begin with trust—and trust is built through conversation. When a donor is asked, clearly and respectfully, to consider a gift in their will, the likelihood of follow-through increases dramatically. This guide exists to remove the hesitation, provide the language, and show why relationship-based legacy conversations consistently outperform passive, click-driven approaches.

Someone is Googling you right now—your next employer, a board member, or a major donor deciding whether you’re strategic enough to trust. What they see in ten seconds can determine your entire career arc. Planned giving is the quiet filter that separates tactical fundraisers from institutional leaders. Without it, you look incomplete. With it, you gain authority, momentum, and the ultimate advantage: career insurance.