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PARKERSBURG — Local foundations and other charitable groups have concerns about provisions in the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act that could impact how charitable donations are made.

Provisions including increasing taxes on private foundation investment income, effectively reducing grant making funds; reducing the value of the charitable deduction, effectively reducing the amount money that can put into a foundation; and limiting charitable deductions for corporate donors were areas of concern, said area attorney Harry Deitzler.

His Deitzler Foundation has provided more than $2 million in donations to support local and national charities (and local schools and community projects), including over $1 million in the Parkersburg area community alone. The Deitzler Foundation has around $4 million in assets and donates around $200,000 a year.

“We are very concerned because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as currently written, includes provisions that would significantly reduce the financial resources available to charitable organizations like ours which are essential to our continued private support within the community,” Deitzler said. “My biggest concern is it could cost local charities a lot of their sources of donations.”

If money these organizations have available ends up being taxed, which is not what is currently happening, then that would reduce what these organizations could give out to local charities, he said. It could also cost donors more if they don’t get a tax deduction for their donation.

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“If the investments of the Foundation are taxed, that would reduce the ability of the Foundation to grow and give more money to local charities,” Deitzler said. “The other thing is if the charitable deduction is taken away then donors will not be able to donate as much.”

United Way of the Mid-Ohio Valley Executive Director Stacy Decicco said they are watching what is happening with this bill with a certain level of concern. She said that every bill has its positives and negatives with things lawmakers put into these bills.

She has seen some things to be optimistic about as in 2017 some legislation and tax reform was passed that limited charitable deductions and incentives of people who didn’t itemize. The bill now would broaden the base of people who can itemize and some individual donors could re-engage with some charitable giving when they may have stepped away from when they lost the tax incentive, she said.

“For us, the concern is that it is great but the cost of some of the other pieces in the bill would never be offset by that,” she said. “When you take away the incentives for foundational giving to non-profits, it is a dangerous thing.”

As people are concerned about Medicaid cuts and SNAP cuts, the burden to make up the difference falls to a number of non-profits in a community. If incentives are reduced and additional tax obligations are made to private foundations, it limits what foundations are able to provide to non-profits.

“It is easy to forget how much is carried on the backs of non-profits at the community level,” Decicco said of programs in the community many people rely on.

As cuts are made to some programs, like SNAP, there could be an increase in people visiting food pantries.

“Those are non-profit entities that have to receive funding from somewhere,” Decicco said, adding the risk is greater and those services could not be there to fill the need.

Other parts of the bill could diminish corporate giving and sponsorships.

“I think it will have an effect on communities across our country,” Decicco said. “I think if you look at an Appalachian community in the region, and look at the level of foundational and community support that keep the nonprofit ecosystem thriving and sustainable, you think about taking a cut to that and it is concerning.”

Many non-profits already operate on tight budgets and many groups operate on staffing that is already stretched thin.

Decicco recommends people check with non-profit organizations they are interested in supporting and ask what their programs support and how these reductions in funding might impact them.

In this area, decreased funding from foundational and corporate organizations can impact after-school programs for working families, feeding programs that directly serve senior citizens and veterans in the community as well as domestic violence shelters, programs that help with sexual assault cases involving children and more.

“This has implications that can be felt in the Mid-Ohio Valley,” Decicco said. “People have no idea how the capacity for these programs could be affected if funding was diminished.

“We are concerned. People need to do their homework.”