Lasting Gift

Whether you want to support the arts, education, animals, a demographic in need, a specific community or the next generation, there are myriad nonprofits to donate to in Greater Akron. Incorporating planned giving into your financial plan is one way to contribute to the organizations and causes you care about.

“They’ve raised their family and they’ve made their money, and now they want to be able to give back in a meaningful way,” says Laura Lederer, the vice president and chief development officer at Akron Community Foundation. “There’s a bunch of different ideas that will lend permanence to the community.”

Akron Community Foundation provides the opportunity to give to a charity or to multiple charities through a fund or to the Akron Community Foundation board discretionary fund instead of just writing a check to an individual charity. In the past year, it gave to nearly 750 area nonprofits, and it highlights how powerful individuals’ donations can be.

“We distribute between $13 and $15 million back out to the community annually, and the majority of that giving is from our individuals,” Lederer says. “You can have a great impact.”

She provides some insights into different kinds of gifts you can give.

Bequests 

What the Gift is: One of the easiest ways to incorporate planned giving into your financial plan is through a bequest, which is a gift that can be given through a will, living trust or estate plan. You can name Akron Community Foundation as a beneficiary. “It’s always good to think of your charitable giving in terms of a percentage of your estate instead of a specific dollar amount because you don’t know how long you’re going to live and how much it’s going to cost,” Lederer says. An example is planning to give 50 percent of your estate to Akron Community Foundation to start a fund that benefits three of your favorite charities.

Why Choose It: Bequests can have a big impact. Lederer mentioned an example from this year of a longtime donor to Millennium Fund for Children who gave Akron Community Foundation a $7 million bequest. No matter how much you leave, you can benefit both your kin and charity through your estate plan by designating portions for each. “You can take care of your family within those plans, but then also leave a percentage in there for your favorite charities,” Lederer says. “You’ll have peace of mind knowing that the organizations that you love during your lifetime will be taken care of.” 

Life Insurance

What the Gift is: To give through a life insurance policy, you can transfer ownership of an existing policy to a charity, get a new policy and make a charity the owner, designate a charity as a beneficiary or donate a paid-up policy. 

Why Choose It: Benefits of this kind of gift include tax advantages. By donating, you can receive a tax deduction for the annual premium payments or a tax deduction equal to the cash value of the policy. This is also a way to get started on planned giving while you’re still alive. If you’re young and healthy, you might qualify for a new policy and can name Akron Community Foundation as the owner and beneficiary, and the gift can go into a donor-advised fund in which your loved ones are named as successor advisers or to a designated fund where the beneficiaries are named up front. “One of the greatest things about Akron Community Foundation is it combines what they can do while they’re living and then extend into what happens to their money after they pass,” Lederer says. “There’s this legacy of giving.”

Qualified Charitable Distribution 

What the Gift is: If you’re 73 or older, you have to make a required minimum distribution out of your individual retirement account before Dec. 31, and one way to do that is through a qualified charitable distribution. 

Why Choose It: You can choose to gift through an IRA because of the tax benefits, and it isn’t the best asset to leave to your children. If you keep the money from your required minimum distribution, it counts as income and will cost you or your beneficiary income taxes. If you donate it, up to a $100,000 donation will be tax-free. “They don’t want to get that income tax level,” says Tracy Burt, the vice president of marketing and communications at Akron Community Foundation. “By just transferring it directly to a charity, they’re going to save on the cost-benefit and make a much larger gift than they would probably be able to just writing a check.”

Stocks

What the Gift is: Gifting stocks can allow you to donate to charity in a way that is easy and won’t put a dent in your bank account like a cash donation would. “You can give appreciated and depreciated stock to charity,” Burt says. “It helps you give more significant gifts while you’re living.” 

Why Choose It: When gifting a stock, you can receive a deduction for the fair market value and also avoid capital gains taxes, which are taxes on the profits of stocks when they’re sold. “A lot of people have stocks that have greatly appreciated in value since when they purchased them. And so they’re going to be a capital gains issue,” Lederer says. “There’s a tremendous tax advantage to gifting stock. … Gifting the stock is a really great opportunity for them to give charitably without even blinking.” akroncf.org