Oregon proposal would let nonprofits collect charitable checkoff signatures electronically

Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue Chair Meek opened a public hearing on Senate Bill 546 on Jan. 27, 2025, a bill that would let the Department of Revenue permit electronic collection of the 10,000 signatures charities now must submit on paper to qualify for Oregon's personal income tax charitable checkoff list.

The change would apply to signatures collected on or after Jan. 1, 2026, according to testimony from Megan Dennison, Personal Tax and Compliance Division Administrator at the Oregon Department of Revenue. "One of the requirements under current law ... a charity has to get 10,000 signatures, and those have to be submitted to Department of Revenue ... in paper," Dennison said. She told the committee the bill would allow the department to establish an electronic method and that the department would convene a rules advisory committee to design the system if the bill passes.

The bill's sponsor (introduced earlier in the hearing) told the committee the statute is unchanged except for allowing an electronic option; Dennison noted the committee saw a similar bill in 2023 (Senate Bill 1064) that moved out of the Senate but did not clear the House.

Department of Revenue testimony said 29 charities are currently on the checkoff list. Dennison said, "last year because of the record kicker, $3,100,000 was directed to these 29 charities," and that payouts typically rise in a kicker year. Tanya Nelson of the Oregon Zoo Foundation told the committee her organization had firsthand difficulty collecting signatures under the paper-only rule during the previous campaign and supported the change. "Changing this law to allow for electronic signature collection ... can open more sources of philanthropic revenue to organizations and create more opportunity for philanthropic giving from the community," Nelson said.

Committee members were referred to five written letters of support on file, including submissions from Philip Kennedy Wong, the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, the City of Tualatin and the ALICA Alliance. Chair Meek closed the public hearing on SB 546 at the end of the testimony; the committee did not take formal action that day.

Why it matters: Supporters said electronic signatures would lower logistical barriers for smaller nonprofits and likely broaden participation in the checkoff program. The department's proposed rules advisory committee would determine security, verification and implementation details before the electronic process is used.

What remains unresolved: The bill text sets the effective date for electronic collection but leaves implementation details to future rulemaking; the committee did not advance the bill at this hearing.