This Giving Tuesday, a new coalition of leaders across the philanthropic community has formed to help charities get urgently needed funds faster. 

The effort comes in a year when more than half of all U.S. households, driven by the urgent needs of the pandemic, have engaged in charitable activity.

The Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving aims to accelerate funding to charities by fixing design flaws in the nation’s charitable giving tax laws.

These laws currently permit more than $1 trillion to sit in philanthropic vehicles rather than be distributed to charities in a timely manner. Through its proposed reforms, the coalition aims to increase and accelerate resources to working charities to address today’s crises and beyond.

Coalition member John Arnold, founder and co-chair of Arnold Ventures, said of the new coalition: “The rules disincentivize philanthropists from giving with any sense of urgency. Foundations and donor-advised funds get immediate tax breaks and feel no pressure to deliver resources to where they are needed: charities solving this generation’s most pressing problems.”

Charities have worked around the clock this year to address urgent needs driven by the pandemic, from distributing food to supplying PPE.