Planned Giving
This page describes how people can make a planned gift to The Environmental Center.
Planned gifts to The Environmental Center are about planning for the future: your future and the future of Central Oregon's environment. Our programs depend upon your goodwill. To that end, there are many easy options from which you can choose – from naming The Environmental Center as a beneficiary in your will to a life-income arrangement.
Here are some ways you can make a planned gift to
The Environmental Center:
This information is offered only for educational purposes. Your personal adviser(s) should always be consulted in the estate planning process.
BEQUESTS
A popular and easy planned giving option is providing for The Environmental Center with a bequest in your will or revocable trust. After your lifetime The Environmental Center receives the gift and applies it to the purposes(s) you specified.
Benefits:
• Your assets remain in your control during your lifetime.
• You can modify your bequest if your circumstances change.
• You can direct your bequest to a particular purpose.
• There is no upper limit on the estate tax deductions that can be taken for charitable bequests.
• You know that your gift will benefit The Environmental Center tomorrow just as you intend it to today.
IRA GIFT
Naming The Environmental Center as the beneficiary of your IRA, 401(k) or other qualified plan is another simple way to give. After your lifetime, the residual of your plan can be passes to The Environmental Center tax-free.
Benefits:
• You can escape both income AND estate tax levied on the residue left in your retirement plan.
• Give the most-taxed asset in your estate to The Environmental Center and leave more favorably taxed property to your heirs.
• You can continue to take withdrawals during your lifetime.
• You can change the beneficiary or designation should your circumstances change.
INSURANCE GIFT
You can provide for a future gift to The Environmental Center by naming us as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy on your life. At death the proceeds are paid directly to us and we apply them to the program(s) you have designated.
Benefits
• If The Environmental Center becomes the owner and beneficiary of the policy you can receive a tax deduction for the gift.
• If using an existing policy that you no longer see as a necessary part of your financial plans, it can turn into a special future gift for The Environmental Center.
CHARITABLE REMAINDER UNITRUST
A very simple way to explain this type of gift is it is a gift that gives back by providing you income or income for your designated beneficiaries. How it works you transfer cash, securities or other appreciated property, such as real estate into a trust. Each year the trust pays a percentage of its value to you or to the beneficiaries you name. The trust value is re-computed annually, so payments change from year to year. When the trust terminates the remaining balance is passed on to The Environmental Center.
Benefits
• You receive an immediate income tax deduction for a portion of your contribution to the unitrust.
• The trust pays no capital gains tax when it sells the asset you have contributed to the trust.
• You or your designated beneficiaries receive income for life or for a term of years.
• You can make additional gifts to the trust as your circumstances allow and quality for additional tax deductions and increased trust payments.
• You have the satisfaction of making a significant gift that benefits you now and The Environmental Center later.
CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY
This is another gift that provides income. With this gift you transfer cash or appreciated securities to The Environmental Center and we pay you, or up to two annuitants, a lifetime annuity. The principal passes to us after the lifetime of the income beneficiaries.
Benefits
• You receive an immediate income tax deduction for a portion of your gift.
• Your annuity payments are treated as part ordinary income and part tax-free income.
• If the gift is funded with appreciated property, your annuity payments are also part capital gain income and part tax-free income.
• You have the satisfaction of making a significant gift that benefits you now and The Environmental Center later.
We would be pleased to talk with you in detail about these and other planned giving options. Contact Shauna Quistorff at (541) 385-6908 x 12 or shauna(at)envirocenter.org for more information.
