Creating a permanent fund at the San Angelo Area Foundation is a simple and flexible means of accomplishing your charitable objectives. Your gift affords the maximum tax deduction, and allows you to make a difference today and always through a lasting legacy for our area. Remember, the Foundation is a Way to Give, not a place to give.

Three simple steps to make a Gift that never stops Giving...

1. Choose a name for the fund

A fund's name stays with it forever. Whenever a grant is made from a fund, it is recognized by name. Thus, donors should give careful thought to their fund's name.

Possibilities and examples of each include:

• The name of the person(s) establishing the fund (the Amy & John Mark McLaughlin Donor Advised Fund)
  
  
• A family name (the Stephens Family Fund)
  
  
• A favorite cause (the Tom Enoch’s Fund for St. John's Episcopal Church)
  
  
• A memorial (the Travis Scott Armstrong Memorial Scholarship Fund)
  
  
• An anonymous fund (the San Angelo Community Fund)

2. Focus your fund on the impact you want to make

Donors may designate their funds in one or more of the following ways:

• Unrestricted: Preferred by donors who want their fund always to address the community's highest priorities. The Foundation urges all donors to designate at least a portion of their fund for unrestricted purposes to help ensure resources for special projects and unanticipated needs in the future.
  
  
• Field of Interest: Used by donors who want to support an area of special interest, such as education, the arts or a particular geographic area.
  
  
• Designated: The choice of donors who want their fund always to support specific charitable agencies.
  
  
• Agency Endowment: Initiated by agencies and their donors to serve as an endowment supporting the organization's work.
  
  
• Donor Advised: Popular with donors who want to play a significant role in decisions about the use of fund proceeds. Advised fund donors make grant recommendations to the Foundation Board of Directors. Donor advised funds can be endowed or non-endowed.
  
  
• Supporting Organization: An appealing alternative to private foundations. A supporting organization has its own board, letterhead, checkbook and investment manager, but qualifies for the preferential tax treatment afforded community foundations. The purposes of a supporting organization must be compatible with the San Angelo Area Foundation, and a majority of its board (not necessarily its officers) must be appointed by the Foundation.

3. Choose the best way to make your gift and leave your legacy

• Bequests: Establish a fund through your will.
  
  
• Charitable remainder trusts: The donor and/or other named beneficiaries retain a life income and earn immediate and long-term tax benefits. Upon termination, assets go to a charitable fund named and designed by the donor. Using assets remaining in IRAs to create charitable unitrusts can offer significant tax advantages to larger estates.
  
  
• Charitable gift annuities: You can establish a gift annuity by transferring cash or appreciated properties, such as stock, as an irrevocable gift to the San Angelo Area Foundation. The Foundation deposits these funds in a professionally managed account. Upon your deaths; the amount remaining in your gift annuity is distributed between the Discretionary Fund of the San Angelo Area Foundation, and endowments to the charities of your choosing, established at the San Angelo Area Foundation. The Foundation distributes a guaranteed, fixed payment to you for as long as you live. The amount you receive each year is determined by your ages; the older a donor is the higher payout he or she receives.
  
  
• Charitable Lead Trusts: Like a charitable remainder trust, lead trusts benefit the donors and the charities of their choice. With a lead trust, the donors establish an irrevocable fund which distributes cash to their favorite charities for a term of years (normally, 5-20 years). When the trust expires, the assets within the trust revert to the donors (or their selected beneficiaries). Donors especially like charitable lead trusts because they have the opportunity to observe how their gifts are being used (as opposed to the charity not receiving funds until the donors have died). Donors can establish a donor advised endowment fund at the San Angelo Area Foundation and advise the board of directors how to grant the earnings. In addition, donors who wish to leave their heirs an asset expected to appreciate significantly can use a charitable lead trust to achieve very favorable tax treatment. The asset’s original transfer tax is discounted because a charitable partner receives income from the fund for several years. (The longer the charity receives a distribution, and the higher payout percentage it receives, the higher discount the trust receives.) Furthermore, the assets within the trust can grow without additional transfer tax implications because the tax valuation is determined only at the time the property is placed in a trust
  
  
• Insurance: Name the San Angelo Area Foundation as owner and beneficiary of an insurance policy to be used to establish a future charitable fund. The donor earns an immediate tax deduction and any additional premium payments are deductible, as well.

Gifts that go to work immediately:

• Cash
  
  
• Securities: For both closely held and publicly traded stocks, the charitable deduction is based on full market value. Capital gains taxes on appreciation are also avoided.
  
  
• Real Estate: If held for more than a year, it usually provides the same benefits as gifts of securities.

Want more information? Click here for five additional tips...