Life Stages of Giving
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Moving through life, your clients' lifestyles and financial circumstances change, and so do the ways they might choose to support their favourite charities and not-for-profit organizations.
The Early Years
Monthly Giving
- Increasingly, people in their thirties who are looking for easier, more convenient ways to give are choosing monthly giving programs, whereby a specific amount is automatically donated to their favourite organization[s] each month. This is most easily accomplished through pre-authorized withdrawals from a chequing account or on credit card.
The Middle Ages
Life Insurance
- In their forties and fifties, individuals often carry their highest levels of personal debt and have the greatest need for annual tax savings. For this group, funding a charitable gift using a life insurance policy is a great way to make a significant future gift with modest current premium contributions that also generate a tax credit each year.
Listed Securities
- For individuals in their mid-to-late career who hold stocks, mutual fund units and/or stock options that have increased in value, funding a gift by donating these assets lets them take advantage of special capital gains tax rates and enjoy immediate tax savings.
The Retirement Years
Charitable Gift Annuities and Remainder Interest Gifts
- Those clients looking for a reliable, tax-preferred [often tax-free] life income stream, and a thoughtful way to support a favourite charity, have discovered that charitable gift annuities [CGA ] or charitable remainder trusts [CRT] can be great ways to meet their needs.
- Please note that currently, community foundations are prohibited by law to offer the charitable gift annuity. Some registered charitable organizations can accept gift annuities; however, you may wish to make those clients interested in generating guaranteed lifetime income aware of this attractive giving instrument.
Estate Gifts by Will
- With retirement income resources and needs much better understood, many people over age 60 begin to plan for charitable gifts in their will. Often referred to as bequests, these gifts can be specific amounts, a percentage amount, or the residue of an estate.
Retirement Plan Accumulations
- Increasingly, generous donors are beginning to designate charities as beneficiaries of the proceeds from Registered Retirement Savings Plans [RRSPs] or Registered Retirement Income Funds [RRIFs]. Such decisions result in reducing the amount of tax that would otherwise be payable by the estate at death.
Cash Donations and Active Participation
- With limited means while still in school or starting a career, individuals in their twenties and younger, typically make spontaneous cash donations and/or contribute by participating in special events and activities.
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Updated September 2009
www.lethbridgecommunityfoundation.ca
403.328.5297 office@lethbridgecommunityfoundation.ca 404 8th St South
