Butterworth Center & Deere-Wiman House promotes cultural and educational growth
through the generosity and vision of donors like you.
Your gift to the Annual Fund funds day camps, meeting space for nonprofit community groups, beautiful grounds and more!
And through the generosity and vision of donors like you, we want to encourage new generations to rally around community history while promoting cultural and educational growth. Here’s a sample of what your donations supported last year alone…
People gathering spaces (valued at $400,000) provided at no charge for community use
Programs designed to share history with over 14000 children and families, including
- 350 daycare students attended free summer day camps
- 1,000 schoolchildren learned about Deere family history through field trips, in-class programs, and curriculum developed by our staff
- 7,000 guests toured the historic Butterworth Center and Deere-Wiman House
Preservation projects to ensure the safety, comfort, and convenience of all guests
- Deere-Wiman House renovations, repairs, and restorations.
- Butterworth Center repair and cleaning of east entrance
- Education Center window repairs and restoration
- Butterworth Center pergola repair and restoration
2026 Tax provisions for Donors
Here are four significant changes that may impact your giving strategies:
• New Universal Charitable Deduction:
A new, permanent universal
charitable deduction will be available starting in 2026. This allows taxpayers who
take the standard deduction to deduct their charitable gifts as well, up to
$1,000 for single filers or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly.
• Change for Itemizers (AGI Floor):
For taxpayers who
itemize their
deductions, please be aware that starting in 2026, charitable contributions are
deductible only to the extent total qualified gifts exceed 0.5% of that taxpayer's
adjusted gross income, or AGI. To illustrate, a taxpayer with an AGI of $200,000
would only be able to deduct qualified gifts that exceed $1,000.
Given these changes, this is an excellent time to plan your philanthropy to ensure your generosity has the greatest possible impact. If you have an advisor, please discuss the following strategies with them:
• Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs):
For donors aged 70½ or older,
a QCD remains one of the most tax-efficient ways to give. It allows you to donate
directly from your IRA (up to $108,000 per person in 2025) to a qualified charity.
These distributions are not counted as taxable income and may fully or partially
satisfy your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).
• "Bunching" Gifts with a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF): To maximize your
deduction before the new AGI floor takes effect, you might consider "bunching"
several years' worth of charitable giving into 2025. By making a larger contribution
to a Donor-Advised Fund this year, you can take the full tax deduction under the
current rules. You can then recommend grants from your DAF to SJJ and other
charities you support over the next several years.
Other Ways to Give
Butterworth Center & Deere-Wiman House exists because of the
planned gifts of Katherine Deere Butterworth and Pattie Southall Wiman. You can support service, culture, and education both now, and after your lifetime, by including us in your
estate plan. Contact your financial advisor for more information.
Does your employer offer a
matching gifts program? Many employers do, enabling you to double—or more—the impact of your charitable giving to an organization you love and support. Contact your own employer for more information about their
matching gifts program.
A Donor Advised Fund is an easy way to support charitable giving. Donors make charitable contributions, receive immediate taxdeductions, and then recommend grants from the fund to charitable organizations. You can donate to charities directly from your IRA. If you are 70 1/2 years old or older, you can give any amount (in 2025, up to a maximum of $108,000 per person, across all charities) this year directly from your IRA to
a charity of your choice, without having to pay income taxes on the money. This qualified charitable deduction (QCD), made from most IRAs, also known as a charitable rollover, can be counted toward satisfying your required minimum distribution (RMD). If you're age 73 or older and need to take RMDs, your QCD counts toward your annual IRS requirement.
To help preserve the collections here and to honor the 38 years of service by Gretchen Small, the recently-retired Director of Programs and Collections, the Butterworth Center & Deere-Wiman House Collections Endowment Fund was created at the Moline Regional Community Foundation with a starting gift of $5000. Thanks to the newly created Illinois Gives Tax Credit Program, individuals and businesses are able to receive a 25 percent income tax credit for contributions, until funds are exhausted, to permanent endowment funds held by Qualified Community Foundations, like the Moline Regional Community Foundation. You don't have to be an Illinois resident to take advantage of this - if you or your business pays Illinois Income Tax, you're eligible.
The Donor Bill of Rights was created by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits. It has been endorsed by numerous organizations.