What to Give
Keeping in mind your unique interests and means, our staff is here to help you plan the giving options that are best for you. With our support, you can ensure that your gift meets your objectives and makes a real difference.
Giving Options
A cash gift is the most popular type of charitable gift because of its simplicity.
Gifts of appreciated stock, bonds and mutual funds result in a charitable deduction for the full market value of your donated property – even if you bought it for far less. You will also avoid capital gains tax – money you would have to pay if you liquidated your holdings. View stock and mutual fund transfer instructions.
You may name the Community Foundation as sole beneficiary of a life insurance policy or transfer ownership and receive a tax deduction for the policy’s cash value. If you are still making premium payments to keep the policy current, they may also qualify for a deduction.
After age 59 ½, you can take a taxable distribution from your Traditional IRA without penalty. You can use that in any way including contributing the distribution to charity. If you itemize your charitable deductions, then donating your IRA distribution should provide you with a charitable deduction that offsets your income. When you reach age 70 1/2, there is also a way to transfer a gift from your IRA to charity without it being counted in your income or being taxed. This is called the “qualified charitable distribution” (QCD), more commonly known as the Charitable IRA Rollover.
This is an easy and convenient way to make a gift from what might be one of your major assets. It may allow you to sustain or even increase your giving as your cash-flow changes in retirement and can count toward your required minimum distribution. In order to qualify, the transfer must go directly from your IRA to charity, cannot exceed $100,000 and must be made outright. It is prohibited to make Charitable IRA Rollover gifts to donor-advised funds or life-income vehicles such as charitable gift annuities or charitable remainder trusts.
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) are intended to support your lifestyle during retirement. If these funds are not needed for your everyday living expenses, you can use them to support your charitable giving by naming the Community Foundation as a beneficiary. Tax efficiency is maximized because there is no estate or income tax attributed to your gifted IRA assets. This option allows 100 percent of your IRA assets go to a charitable purpose that is important to you and also allows your estate to claim a charitable estate tax deduction.
Donating the closely held stock of your business to the Community Foundation offers you a charitable deduction for the appraised fair market value and an avoidance of capital gain tax. At a later date, your company may redeem the stock at its fair market value or it can be sold outright.
Whether it is a home, building or land, we can help you turn this asset into a charitable gift. We can accept the gift outright or set up a trust that allows the gift to produce income for you.
You can name the Community Foundation to receive all or a portion of your estate through your will. In doing so, you may reduce estate taxes while supporting your community. You may give a specific dollar amount, property or percentage of your estate.
Charitable gift annuities offer simplicity and income. You or someone you designate can receive life income in exchange for your gift. You will be eligible for a charitable deduction and may reduce or defer your capital gains tax.
A charitable lead trust or several types of charitable remainder trusts create valuable options in estate planning by providing maximum flexibility for transferring assets or securing a life income for beneficiaries.
A gift of a remainder interest in a personal residence allows you to continue to occupy the residence without disruption. You get an income tax charitable deduction for the present value of the remainder interest.
Stock Transfer Instructions
Please deliver your stock shares to the broker for the Central New York Community Foundation as follows: DTC #0015, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Account # 621-113406-409, Central New York Community Foundation, Inc., Attn: Tom Griffith (315.422.9538)
It is extremely important that you notify us when transferring securities into our account so that we may credit your gift to the appropriate charitable fund. Please notify us that a stock transfer is in process, the name and number of shares and the fund to which the shares should be credited. You can reach us by email at info@cnycf.org; by phone at 315.422.9538 or by fax at 315.471.6031. Thank you for your stock gift.
Mutual Fund Transfer Instructions
To initiate a transfer, please provide us with the name of the mutual fund, the number of shares, and the telephone number and contact person (if available) at the mutual fund company. It is advised that you also contact your mutual fund company to ask about the process of making a charitable gift of mutual fund shares. Specifically, you will want to know whether the company has a required form for instructions to initiate the transfer and whether those instructions will require a medallion signature guarantee.
When we confirm with you either that an existing account is available or that a new account is being established for the purpose of accepting your gift, at that point you can instruct the mutual fund company to transfer the shares to our account. This process can typically take two to four weeks to complete.