Lynne Elson was 85 years-old when she first visited the Abayudaya community in Uganda. She felt so connected to the community that she returned to teach and work with them. Upon her passing, she decided to turn her love for her adopted community into a legacy, leaving Kulanu a gift of $32,000.
If you believe in Kulanu’s mission to support emerging global Jewish communities, consider planned giving, as in the example set by Lynne. Planned Giving simply means including charitable giving in your estate plan and/or related retirement plan. You can leave a monetary contribution, assets like stocks and bonds or other gifts and it is tax-deductible, often at the point that you make a commitment to a future gift. You still receive a tax deduction for its current value and pay no capital gains tax.
Five common ways to participate in planned giving
- Lifetime trust
- Provision in your will, whether by percentage of estate or a physical asset
- Retained life asset, such as real estate: This means you have the use of the property during your lifetime plus an immediate charitable income tax deduction upon making the gift.
- Making Kulanu the beneficiary (or partial beneficiary) of your retirement plan/IRA or an insurance policy
- Charitable annuity plan: An annuity is usually created by giving an asset or monies to a charitable annuity (a form of trust) which promises to pay you fixed or variable periodic interest for a period, at the end of which, payments cease, and the balance is retained by Kulanu.
One easy way to participate in planned giving is to donate appreciated stock. You can send stocks to a donor-advised fund run by a community foundation, Jewish Federation, Bnai Brith, or Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, and then advise the fund when you want your donated funds to be passed on to Kulanu. You only need to report one donation of stock to the IRS even if your gift eventually goes to many different charities at different times. You get the full deduction in the year you donate the stock to the donor-advised fund.
We encourage you to contact us if you are interested in discussing the options. You can fill out a Letter of Intent online here.
Our supporter Lawrence J. Gross, Esq. kindly contributed to this guide.