The Des Moines Symphony caps off the summer at the Lauridsen Amphitheater at Water Works Park. (Photo: Bravo Greater Des Moines) By Steve Dinnen I was feeling pretty self-satisfied, just shy of smug, as I settled onto the lawn at Water Works Park to hear the Des Moines Symphony crank out a Labor Day weekend tribute to Billy Joel. After all, just a day earlier, I’d sat in symphony offices discussing my gift of thousands of dollars to help the organization. And then a slight personal buzzkill arrived right before the show, when an official from the Water Works Park Foundation announced that the family of Bob Burnett, the late chairman and CEO of Meredith Corp., was pledging $1 million to further the park’s evolution into a fantastic event and nature space. Hmm, thousands versus millions. I let my eye and mind wander and counted up where tens of millions of dollars had been poured into the park and its surroundings by civic-minded families. Right in front of my face stood the Lauridsen Amphitheater, a gift from philanthropists Nix and Virginia Lauridsen that has quickly become a premier venue for outdoor entertainment. Next to it stood the Killinger Family Stage; Des Moines native Kerry Killinger once headed Washington Mutual. Somewhere in the mix is the Hubbell Celebration Lawn. Was I lying on that? Thanks, Fred and family. The tunnel that runs under Fleur Drive and links the Water Works Park with Gray’s Lake is the Ruan Connector, courtesy of the Ruan family. From there, you can circle the lake on the Kruidenier Trail, so named after newspaper operator David Kruidenier pledged $1.5 million in 1998 to help build the lake’s pedestrian bridge. (He and banker John Fitzgibbon also were the driving forces behind the Des Moines Civic Center, built in 1979, where Joseph Giunta leads the symphony’s indoor concerts.) Smaller traces of individual gifts to this little swath of the city show up on signs honoring those who funded sidewalks that lead to the tunnel. And plaques along the the bridge at Gray’s Lake indicate that Kruidenier inspired many others to pitch in, too. And of course, hundreds of flowering crabapples grow near the amphitheater, courtesy of Arie Den Boer, who funded them, and got his hands dirty planting them, way back in 1930. So, what have we covered, maybe one square mile of Des Moines? We’ve just scratched the surface, as this sort of community largesse has been repeated all over the city by hundreds of people with pockets large and small. I’m more of the latter, but I can still do my bit — and I applaud the Lauridsens and Burnetts for leading the way. The smart way to make charitable donations from your IRA I didn’t actually write a check to the Des Moines Symphony when I made my donation. Instead, I called my stockbroker and had him set up a QCD from my IRA and draw down my RMD. It’s a great way to make a charitable donation. In plain English, I asked my broker to transfer the agreed-upon sum from my individual retirement account. The check was not sent to the symphony but instead to the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, which then forwarded the money to the symphony. This is the process to use when you want to make a qualified charitable deduction from your IRA. And what’s the purpose of this go-around? Well, by law, IRA holders have to start taking payouts from their accounts once they reach age 73. These are known as RMDs, required minimum distributions, and they trigger a tax liability on the amount received. The RMD is calculated every year, based on a percentage of the year-end value of your account. The Internal Revenue Service allows you to avoid incurring a tax liability if you send that money to a qualifying charity (most nonprofits qualify, but it’s a good idea to check first). Currently, you can direct up to $105,000 annually from your IRA to a charity. Donors can also direct a one-time $53,000 QCD to a charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity as part of the recent legislation known as the SECURE Act 2.0. Qualified charitable distributions are made directly to the eligible charity from a traditional IRA, inherited IRA, inactive simplified employee pension (SEP) plan and inactive savings incentive match plan for employees (SIMPLE) IRAs. Make sure you don’t take a distribution and then send the money to the charity. That route will trigger that tax liability.