Are you leaving money on the table? Year-end gifts that aren’t cash
As you know, I’ve already encouraged you to reach out to your people to ask for a year-end donation. We usually think of those as being cash. However, some may want the tax advantage of giving through a non-cash gift.
What? They didn’t teach you about the intricacies of tax advantages in seminary?
What’s that you say? You, instead, were learning about hermeneutics and eschatology?
Well, alrighty then, let’s see if we can expand your tax knowledge today.
Faith Foundation Northwest is my go-to for such things. Thanks to them, you can find out a lot about year-end giving through their handy dandy brochure aptly named, End of Year Gifts & Tax Planning.
As they list it, there are three primary ways to give gifts (in addition to cash) at the end of the year:
1. Appreciated Asset Gifts.
If you hold on to an asset, it usually gains in value. If you sell it, you usually have to pay taxes on what the increased value is. However, if you donate it to your favorite church or nonprofit, you may get a tax advantage.
Here are examples of non-cash appreciated asset gifts:
Publicly traded securities
Restricted stock
Real estate
Privately held business interests
Private equity fund interests
Cryptocurrency
Fine art and collectibles
IPO stock
Equity compensation awards
2. IRA Charitable Rollover.
From CASE, and in understandable words, here’s what an IRA Charitable Rollover means:
The IRA charitable rollover allows taxpayers to make tax-free charitable gifts directly from their Individual Retirement Accounts to eligible charities, including colleges, universities and independent schools [and I’ll add here – churches and nonprofits].
Currently, the provision:Caps qualified charitable IRA distributions at $100,000 per person per year, Precludes the funding of gift annuities and similar life income plans and Applies only to donors age 70½ or older.
3. Charitable Life Income Plans (aka “charitable gift annuities”).
Not sure what this means? Let’s see if Fidelity Charitable can help:
A charitable gift annuity is a contract between a donor and a charity with the following terms: As a donor, you make a sizable gift to charity using cash, securities [stocks, bonds, notes, debentures, limited partnership interests, oil and gas interests, and investment contracts] or possibly other assets. In return, you become eligible to take a partial tax deduction for your donation, plus you receive a fixed stream of income from the charity for the rest of your life.
Let me stress: Faith Foundation Northwest’s downloadable brochure is a great place to get information and a conversation started.
How might you use this brochure?
Print some off and have them available at worship.
Identify some people you think would be interested in this information and either email or snail mail it with a friendly message (“Thought you might be interested in this. Hope you keep us in mind for your year-end giving!”).
Send out a link with your e-newsletter or insert a hard copy of it with your snail mail newsletter.
Remember, nonprofits (including seminaries) are doing a much better job of educating their fans about how they can give a variety of cash and non-cash gifts.
Now you’ve been educated. Here’s your opportunity to let your people and fans know how they can make a difference to make more ministry possible.
Time’s running out! Until Dec. 11 I’m offering my annual Christmas gift to you: Send me a draft of your church’s Christmas/Year End letter. I’ll look at it and give you some friendly feedback.
Follow-up to last week’s post, You Can Do It! Write Your Year-End Letter: Reader Lori Alton sent me a very most helpful link – Preparing documents for visually impaired people. It’s well worth your time and attention
Cesie Delve Scheuermann (pronounced “CC Delv Sherman,” yes, really) is a Stewardship Consultant for the OR-ID Annual Conference. She is also a Senior Ministry Strategist with Horizons Stewardship. For 25 years, while working as a volunteer and part-time consultant, she has helped raise over three million dollars for numerous churches and non-profit organizations. I know, I know…it’s early, but is there ever a bad time to listen to Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration?
You can reach Cesie at inspiringgenerosity@gmail.com, at CesieScheuermann.com, or at cesieds@horizons.net. Want to schedule a meeting? She’s got you covered!
Schedule a meeting now.
If someone has forwarded this to you and you would like to subscribe to "Inspiring Generosity," click here. Miss an issue? Click here.