GORNTO LAW, PLLC

Planned Giving & Philanthropy

 

Planned giving, sometimes referred to as gift planning, may be defined as a method of supporting non-profits and charities that enables philanthropic individuals or donors to make lager gifts than they could make form their income.  While some planned gifts provide a life-long income to the donor, others use estate and tax planning techniques to provide for charity and other heirs in ways that maximize the gift and/or minimize its impact on the donor's estate.

 

Thus, by definition, a planned gift is any major gift, amed in lifetime or at death as part of a donor's overall financial and/or estate planning.

 

By contrast, gifts to the annual fund or for membership dues are made from a donor's discretionary income, and while they may be budgeted for, they are not planned.

 

Whether a donor uses cash, appreciated sercurities/stock, real estate, artwork, partnership interests, personal property, life insurance, a retirement plan, etc., the benefits of funding a planned gift can make this type of charitable giving very attractive to both donor and charity.

 

Planned gifts are referred to as such because they require more planning, negotiation and counsel than many other gifts.  Planned gifts can result in immediate income, income to charity over time or serve to delay a gift for life or toher period of time while the donor or others retain income and/or access to the assets used to fund the gift.  Because of the current or future charitable benefits, a number of state and/or federal income tax, capital gains, estate and gift benefits are associated with giving in this way.

 

There are three (3) types of planned gifts:

 

1)  Outright gifts that use appreciated assets as a substitute for cash;

2)  Gifts that return income or other financial benefits to the donor in return for the contribution;

3)  Gifts payable upon the donor's death.

 

Efforts to encourage planned gifts are popular among thousands of colleges, universities, hospitals, museums and community foundations in the United States.  Funds generatged through planned gifts are devoted to current funding needs as well as capital projects and endowments.