November Giver’s Ledger: IAdvocacy, Impact & Year-End Tips
First Published: Volume I, Issue 9 by NINA NEEDLEMAN | November 22, 2025
The Giver’s Ledger is a monthly newsletter covering educational topics of Philanthropy, Finance, & DEIA.
LOCAL SPOTLIGHT
This workforce development nonprofit is focused on culinary training, which includes creating health and wealth with food. They are a community kitchen and collaborative platform for Black and Brown food producers and entrepreneurs.
Established in 2021 in collaboration with Beyond Housing and a grant from MFH. Their mission: “Through our programs and training opportunities, we aim to utilize nutrition, food industry training and education initiatives as tools to equip and enable St. Louis residents and communities to combat persistent economic and health inequities.”
Along with training food industry professionals, Propel Kitchens serves as a social enterprise aimed at helping its employees get on their feet after life altering — or hindering — events.
PHILANTHROPY/PERSONAL FINANCE TIPS
TAX SMART TIPS FOR YEAR-END
You can reduce your taxes and your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) by giving your RMD to a charity. Good article here: How to Reduce Your Taxes and AGI by Giving Your RMD to Charity Always check with your accountant first.
Starting in 2026, you’ll only be able to deduct charitable donations that add up to more than 0.5% of your income (as measured by AGI on your tax return). So if you normally itemize yourtaxes, it may make sense to make some of your planned charitable donations in advance of the change or even increasing them in 2025 — before this new rule starts.
BUNCHING means concentrating charitable deductions in a single year and skipping charitable deductions the following year or even several years. If you follow this strategy, you wouldn’t claim itemized charitable deductions in the following year or years, but you still qualify for the standard deduction.
When bunching for the purpose of itemizing, note that if you put your contribution in a DONOR ADVISED FUND, you can take the charitable deduction in the current year but spread your giving out over many years. If you want to itemize, this strategy can help.
SKILL BUILDING – ADVOCACY FOR NONPROFITS
Advocacy can be defined several ways. It can be defined as education about issues you care about and to mobilize support from the public and decision-makers. Another definition - advocacy refers to efforts made by nonprofit organizations to promote and support a particular cause or issue by influencing public opinion, policies, and legislation. Benefits of advocacy - by actively advocating for your nonprofit’s cause, you can gain visibility and attract attention to the important work you do. It can elevate your appeal to donors and volunteers, and could save or attract government funding. Examples of advocacy campaign types: public awareness campaigns, grassroots organizing, letter-writing or calling campaigns, and coalition building. Advocacy Training programs and resources are offered by the Advocacy Institute, Alliance for Justice, Council of Nonprofits, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and many others.
[NOTE] – since advocacy is purely education and not fundraising and not promoting a specific candidate, it does not counter your charitable status.
A few good articles on this:
Why Should Your Nonprofit Advocate?
Nonprofit Advocacy 101: How to Effectively Promote Your Nonprofit’s Cause
Why Advocacy Is Non-Negotiable for Nonprofits in 2025
UPCOMING NON-PROFIT TRAINING OF VALUE
Advocacy 101: Is your Nonprofit Ready? December 12, 2025
Network for Strong Communities - Virtual Training 9:00-10:30am
REGISTER HERE
COMMUNITY INSIGHTS
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION
The Spirit of St Louis Women’s Fund held a workshop on this topic on November 17th . There is terrific work done by organizations outside of typical nonprofits, and we introduced three of them. Midwest BankCentre, the Delmar Divine and R&R Marketplace in Dellwood. Midwest BankCentre takes a case management style approach to guiding individuals, nonprofits and businesses to qualify for financing and provides ongoing connection to resources. Delmar Divine converted an abandoned hospital into a mixed use development for social innovators providing office space, shared services, and other resources fornonprofits, foundations and community support organizations; and Refuge & Restoration Marketplace converted a former grocery strip mall into a community gem with job training, co-working space, local pharmacy, first class childcare facility, counseling office, bank, restaurant and more.
One of the best articulated take-aways were from our friend Nico Krehmeyer at Beyond Housing:
“These speakers offered memorable wisdom about what it takes to support the life of a neighborhood. An unplanned theme kept resurfacing. Creating places of caring. Places where people are nurtured, supported, and empowered. The kind of steady, neighborly care Fred Rogers imagined when he invited us to think about who makes a neighborhood feel like home. Build-A-Bear’s practice of turning care into experience reflects the very elements that make communities strong, and hearing these women speak about the power of caring places underscored how much that same spirit defines our work at Beyond Housing. All of us can use our time and our platforms to create places of caring. It may be one of the most important responsibilities we share.”
EVENTS OF INTEREST
Millcreek Valley/ Black Metropolis exhibit has opened at the Missouri History Museum History Lesson: The predominantly Black neighborhood of Mill Creek Valley, spanning 454 acres in what is now called the central corridor, was razed in the 1950s in the name of urban planning. The 20,000 residents and their homes, churches, businesses, clubs, and institutions were pushed out. The exhibition aims to tell the stories of Mill Creek—to recall what was lost, to celebrate the neighborhood’s beauty and legacy, and to provide space to mourn.
Nina Needleman is a Retired Financial Planner. She spent the first three-decades of her career in the financial services industry. Now she uses her business skills to help nonprofit organizations with Capacity Building and more importantly--as an educator, teaching people about personal finance and philanthropy.