Why should you talk to your clients about giving?
You can help clients realize their charitable goals by listening for charitable giving opportunities, explaining options, and suggesting solutions. Significant giving opportunities often arise when clients are making major business, personal, and financial decisions.
Donors who wish to more closely align the investment of their funds held at SCRF with their values, will have the option to select the ESG Portfolio, which incorporates Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) factors into the investment process in an effort to select/overweight companies that are best-in-class performers from an ESG perspective, and eliminate/underweight the worst offenders. The Community Foundation's Board of Directors believes in providing this type of investment option for donors and has committed $250,000 of the Stewardship Endowment Fund towards this portfolio.
Professional Advisors like you have found these documents useful when assisting clients with charitable giving.
A gift of cash is, of course, the easiest method. Your clients can donate online. Our Stewardship Endowment Fund is our most flexible grantmaking fund. The Community Foundation also has many Field of Interest Funds to choose from.
If your clients choose to sell highly appreciated stock, they will pay a capital gains tax on the increased value of the stock. When they give that stock to charity, however, they pay no or reduced capital gains and receive an income-tax deduction for the full value of the stock.
When your clients give real estate that is more valuable today than when it was acquired, their tax deduction is the present market value and there is no tax on the gain. Read more about the Shasta Regional Community Real Estate Foundation.
Many people have paid, outdated life insurance policies, perhaps originally intended for children who are now grown and have sufficient assets of their own. Making the Shasta Regional Community Foundation the owner and beneficiary of such a policy provides an income-tax deduction and is a great way to support important charities.
Including a charitable bequest in your client’s will is a simple way to make a lasting gift to the community. When your clients make this gift through the Shasta Regional Community Foundation, they establish a special fund that benefits the community forever and becomes their personal legacy of giving.
At death, balances in individual retirement accounts and retirement plans are included when figuring estate and income taxes to your beneficiaries -- often up to 85%. Funding a charitable bequest with an IRA or retirement plan prevents the bequest from becoming a liability of your client’s estate, and the gift is made with pre-tax dollars.
A Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) permits your client to make a gift and receive an income in return. Through the Shasta Regional Community Foundation, your client can establish a fund with the trust assets. We receive the assets at the end of the trust’s term and provide ongoing stewardship of your client’s charitable wishes.
There are additional benefits to this option if your client uses appreciated assets to fund the trust, as your client will not be subject to capital gains taxation. Your client will also be entitled to an income-tax charitable deduction.
This fund fuels our competitive grant making process, which provides support to many local nonprofit organizations that are making a difference in our community and in the lives of those who call Shasta or Siskiyou County home.
These are charitable funds for donors who wish to continue their involvement in philanthropy, but are looking for assistance with support and are seeking additional tax and investment advantages. We offer both endowed and non-endowed Donor Advised Funds.
Through this fund, your clients can provide ongoing assistance to a specific nonprofit organization during and beyond their lifetime. Gifts may also be split between multiple nonprofits.
This fund allows your clients to support particular areas of community life such as arts or education or a specific population such as women or veterans. Donors may choose to support an existing Field of Interest Fund or start their own.
Donors or nonprofit organizations may establish an Agency Endowment Fund for a specific charity. This allows nonprofit organizations to benefit from the Foundation’s history of sound investment returns today and the security of knowing the organization is endowed for the future.