New tax law could hurt donations to non-profits like publisher of The Rural Blog; here's how to give

The new tax law might be bad for small non-profits like the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, the publisher of The Rural Blog. Almost all of our donors are small, and the new law makes it likely that fewer people will itemize deductions — and thus be less likely to give to outfits like ours. The Council on Foundations estimates the tax bill will drain anywhere from $16 billion to $24 billion a year from the nonprofit sector in future years.

But until midnight Sunday, Dec. 31, the old law is in effect, so now might be a good time to send a donation to the Institute, which is supported in part by an endowment at the University of Kentucky, which accepts online donations. To make an online donation, click on this link: https://uky.networkforgood.com/causes/7981-institute-of-rural-journalism-and-community-issues-endowed-fund.

The endowment's return rate to us, based on a three-year rolling average, is 3.5 percent of the corpus. If you want to make a gift with more immediate impact, make out a check to the university, put "Rural Journalism, operating" on the memo line and mail it to us at 122 Grehan Journalism Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 40506-0042.

Thanks for whatever you can do, and happy new year!