For many people, retirement brings new financial decisions that did not exist earlier in life. One of those is the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Once you reach the required age, the IRS requires you to withdraw a portion of your IRA each year — whether you need the income or not.
Those distributions are typically treated as taxable income. But there is another option many people choose to explore: the Qualified Charitable Distribution, often called a QCD.
A Qualified Charitable Distribution allows individuals age 70½ or older to give directly from their IRA to a qualified charitable organization. When done properly, that gift can count toward the year’s required minimum distribution while avoiding the income tax that would normally apply to the withdrawal. In 2026, the total amount that can be given as a QCD is $111,000 per person.
For people who are already inclined to support the ministries and organizations they care about, this can be a thoughtful way to approach required distributions. Rather than withdrawing funds, reporting them as income, and then making a charitable gift, a QCD allows the gift to go directly from the IRA to the charitable organization.
Another benefit is that QCDs can be made at any time during the year. Some donors use them as part of their annual giving, while others see them as a helpful planning tool — a way to think ahead about required distributions and align those decisions with the causes and ministries they want to support.
Like many financial decisions, the details of a Qualified Charitable Distribution depend on individual circumstances. But for many donors, it has become a meaningful way to combine required retirement distributions with faithful stewardship.
If you would ever like to learn more about Qualified Charitable Distributions or simply talk through whether this approach might fit your situation, we would be glad to have that conversation with you.