Please consider adding CAEE to your will.  A gift by will or bequest is totally deductible for estate tax purposes.   Be sure to consult your attorney when drawing up or revising your will to ensure that your intentions are carried out properly.  Then be sure to inform us you have named CAEE in your will.  Sample bequest language is provided below:

Residual Bequest - This grants the residue, or portion of the residue, of your estate to CAEE after explicit bequests have been made:

"I give to Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, a non-profit organization located at 15260 South Golden Road, Golden, Colorado  80401, all (or ____ %) of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, both real and personal property of whatever kind and wheresoever situated."

Specific Bequest – This is for a stated dollar amount or specific securities:

"I give to Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, a non-profit organization located at 15260 South Golden Road, Golden, Colorado  80401, the sum of ____ dollars (or describe the specific property or security you intend to give)."

More on Planned Giving

What is Planned Giving? 

Planned Giving is a way for you to provide donations to a charity in a manner that is tax preferred to you and your estate.  What sets Planned Giving apart from a regular charitable contribution is that the actual contribution occurs some time in the future.  Today you are deciding how and when that contribution will be made.

Why is Planned Giving Important?
Charities are facing a great decline in the amount of government funding available for the worthy causes that need to be supported.  By planning in advance how you will support your charity, the charity can plan ahead for the future.

What are the benefits of Planned Giving?
Besides the direct benefit to your charity of choice, the benefit to you is usually a reduction in income taxes.  Planned Giving can be used to reduce your current and future income taxes, much like a regular charitable contribution.  Quite often this gift is used by your estate trustee to reduce or eliminate your final tax burden.

How can I establish a Planned Giving Program?
This webpage provides information about some basic strategies that you can use to help you decide how best to give to the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.  These are introduced in plain language to help you understand the concept of how and why they work.  There are endless variations of how you can implement a strategy that is tailored to your unique situation.

Options

Charitable Bequests

A bequest is any gift of an asset made through a will.  A common strategy is simply naming the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education as a beneficiary of either a specific dollar amount or a fraction of the residual portion of your estate.  The benefit to you is that the full dollar amount donated qualifies as a charitable donation that can be used to offset the tax on your estate. 

Charitable Remainder Trust

A charitable remainder trust is any trust, inter vivos or testamentary, where all or a portion of the assets are distributed to the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education at the termination of the trust.  The trust must meet certain criteria in order to be eligible for a Donation Receipt at the time the trust is established.  One of the most important of these is that the trust must be irrevocable.

The general idea is that assets are transferred to the trust so that the assets can generate income, which is paid back to the donor (the income interest) over their lifetime.  The Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education receives whatever is left in the trust at the end of the trust's life (the residual interest) and the donor will receive the income.

Assets transferred to the trust result in the donor triggering capital gains, but at an amount reduced by the present value of the residual interest provided to the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.  The donation receipt is also reduced by an equivalent amount and this accounts for the income interest the donor will receive.

The net effect is that assets with accrued capital gains can be transferred to the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education with a splitting of the capital gains between the donor and the trust.  The donor will maintain a life-time interest in the future income generated by the trust's assets.  Future capital gains will not accrue back to the donor and will be exempt from tax because the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education is tax-exempt.

Each situation is unique and a thorough evaluation needs to be completed in order to determine if any specific strategy makes sense for both the donor and the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.  Of course, one of the main reasons for establishing a charitable remainder trust is to leave a lasting legacy to the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education while reducing taxes.

Gifts of Life Insurance
Gifts of life insurance are one of the most effective ways to give to the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.  We will benefit directly from the eventual proceeds of your insurance policy, while you have the choice of when you will benefit from the tax-deductible charitable contribution.  Of course you must first qualify for the insurance coverage and be committed to the long-term nature of this estate planning strategy.

Many people are not that concerned about the taxes paid by their estate and worry more about the taxes they pay on their income today.  By naming the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education as the beneficiary and owner of your policy you can elect to receive a donation receipt for the full value of the premiums that you pay today.

If you are less concerned about your current tax bill and more worried about the taxable value of assets in your estate then you simply decide not to use the premiums as donations today by retaining ownership of the policy.  When the death benefit is finally paid to the charity then a donation receipt for the full value of the death benefit is deductible by your estate.

Thank You
The Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education wishes to thank you for your interest in helping to support environmental education in Colorado.  With dedicated donors like you we can all make a difference and help ensure everyone has the opportunity to learn about the world around and experience quality environmental education.

In order to find out more about Planned Giving and how you can help, please call our office at 303-273-9527.

This information is produced for friends of the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education and although the information contained herein derives from reliable and professional sources, we encourage you to confer with your own legal and financial counsel in the development of your estate planning.  The Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education and its employees and agents assume no responsibility for damages, errors or omissions related to this published material.