MAKE A CHARITABLE BEQUEST
Fall aspens at Elizabeth Town Meadow.
MAKE A CHARITABLE BEQUEST
A charitable bequest is a gift left to charity when someone passes away. A gift left to the Truckee Donner Land Trust in your estate can help ensure the Sierra is available for all to enjoy forever.
A bequest is one of the easiest gifts to make. With the help of an attorney, you can include language in your will or trust specifying a gift to be made to family, friends and/or the Truckee Donner Land Trust and other charities as part of your estate plan. You can leave a specific dollar amount, percent of your estate, or asset to beneficiaries in your will or trust.
Benefits
With a bequest, you can support the causes you care about and leave a legacy, save on potential estate taxes (and lessen the burden of taxes on your family), and retain assets to meet your future needs.
Have You Already Put The Truckee Donner Land Trust In Your Estate Plans? Please Tell Us!
Download and fill out the form below to share details about your planned gift and email it to Danielle@tdlandtrust.org. Thank you for your support!
Thank you for your continued support for the Truckee Donner Land Trust and for sharing your plans with us. We do track (anonymously) the total number of intended estate gifts and this information helps us attract additional donors.
By notifying the Land Trust of your gift you are helping to leverage even more future support for open space in the Sierra that all can enjoy — for nature, for people, forever. Thank you!
Please contact Danielle Williams, Director of Philanthropy, at (530) 410-0962 or danielle@tdlandtrust.org to discuss the impact you’d like to make through your giving.
We are deeply grateful for your ongoing support and commitment. Thank you!
Restricted Bequests
If you are considering a bequest but would like your bequest to be used for a specific purpose at the Truckee Donner Land Trust, please let us know.
Contact Danielle Williams, Director of Philanthropy, at (530) 410-0962 or danielle@tdlandtrust.org to share your interest in making a restricted bequest.
The Truckee Donner Land Trust uses charitable gifts to support its general mission unless otherwise specified by the donor. The more narrowly you restrict the use of your bequest, the greater the risk that the work or project you want to benefit today won’t be as vital or as relevant when we receive your gift in the future.
We look forward to discussing what impact you’d like to make through your gift. And we are happy to work with you and your attorney to help you identify ways to give and meet your charitable objectives. We will also work with you and your attorney to craft language to accomplish your goals.
If you are making a restricted bequest, we recommend that your attorney include the following provision to give Truckee Donner Land Trust flexibility should it no longer be possible for Truckee Donner Land Trust to use your gift as you originally intended:
If, in the judgment of the Board of Directors of Truckee Donner Land Trust, it shall become impossible for Truckee Donner Land Trust to use this bequest to accomplish the specific purposes of this bequest, Truckee Donner Land Trust may use the income and principal of this gift for such purpose or purposes as the Board determines is most closely related to the restricted purpose of my bequest.
More Information About Bequests
A bequest can be changed or modified at any time. You can choose to designate that a bequest be use for a general or specific purpose so you have the peace of mind knowing that your gift will be used as intended.
Bequests are exempt from federal estate taxes. If you have a taxable estate, the estate tax charitable deduction may offset or eliminate estate taxes, resulting in a larger inheritance for your heirs.
There are several ways you can make a bequest to Truckee Donner Land Trust, outlined below. To make a bequest, you should speak with your attorney. Your attorney can help you include a bequest to Truckee Donner Land Trust in your estate plan.
Here is some basic bequest language to assist you and your attorney:
1. Specific Bequest
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A specific bequest involves making a gift of a specific asset such as real estate, a car, other property or a gift for a specific dollar amount. For example, you may wish to leave your home or $10,000 to Truckee Donner Land Trust.
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Description texand bequeath _________ and No/100dollars ($DOLLARS) to Truckee Donner Land Trust, a nonprofit organization located at P.O. Box 8816, Truckee, CA, 96162, Federal Tax ID #68-0245327, for Truckee Donner Land Trust's general use and purpose.
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I hereby give, devise and bequeath DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY to Truckee Donner Land Trust, a nonprofit organization located at P.O. Box 8816, Truckee, CA, 96162, Federal Tax ID #68-0245327, for Truckee Donner Land Trust's general use and purpose.
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I hereby give, devise and bequeath all the right, title and interest in and to the real estate located at ADDRESS OR DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY to Truckee Donner Land Trust, a nonprofit organization located at P.O. Box 8816, Truckee, CA, 96162, Federal Tax ID #68-0245327, for Truckee Donner Land Trust’s general use and purpose.
2. Percentage Bequest
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Another kind of specific bequest involves leaving a specific percentage of your overall estate to charity. For example, you may wish to leave 10% of your estate to Truckee Donner Land Trust.
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I hereby give, devise and bequeath ____ percent (___%) of my total estate, determined as of the date of my death, to Truckee Donner Land Trust, a nonprofit organization located at P.O. Box 8816, Truckee, CA, 96162, Federal Tax ID #68-0245327, for Truckee Donner Land Trust’s general use and purpose.
3. Residual Bequest
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A residual bequest is made from the balance of an estate after the will or trust has given away each of the specific bequests. A common residual bequest involves leaving a percentage of the residue of the estate to charity. For example, you may wish to leave 30% of the residue of your estate to Truckee Donner Land Trust.
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I hereby give, devise and bequeath ____ percent (___%) to Truckee Donner Land Trust, a nonprofit organization located at P.O. Box 8816, Truckee, CA, 96162, Federal Tax ID #68-0245327, for Truckee Donner Land Trust's general use and purpose.
4. Contingent Bequest
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A contingent bequest is made to charity only if the purpose of the primary bequest cannot be met. For example, you could leave specific property, such as a vacation home, to a relative, but the bequest language could provide that if the relative is not alive at the time of your death, the vacation home could transfer to the Truckee Donner Land Trust as a secondary beneficiary.
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If (primary beneficiary) does not survive me, then I hereby give, devise and bequeath to Truckee Donner Land Trust, a nonprofit organization located at P.O. Box 8816, Truckee, CA, 96162, Federal Tax ID # 68-0245327, DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY to be used for Truckee Donner Land Trust's general use and purpose.
5. Gift of Retirement Assets
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You can designate the Truckee Donner Land Trust as a full, partial or contingent beneficiary of your retirement account – an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), pension or another tax-deferred plan. You leave your retirement assets to benefit our organization when you pass away, and your children can save on income tax.
Retirement assets are not always great assets to leave to children or other heirs. If you have a taxable estate, these assets may be subject to estate taxes. Your heirs will also have to pay income tax on the inherited value of the IRA. For that reason, many people leave stock, bonds, and real estate to their heirs and give their IRA or other retirement assets to an organization like Truckee Donner Land Trust.
These changes to your beneficiary usually don’t require lawyers and can help you avoid a capital gains tax by donating directly to charity. Your retirement plan administrator can help you add Truckee Donner Land Trust as a beneficiary, and often, you can do it yourself through your account online.
Please ask your plan administrator to give the Truckee Donner Land Trust a copy of your beneficiary form for our records.
6. Gift of Life Insurance Policy
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You can name Truckee Donner Land Trust as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy, or as contingent beneficiary, should your other beneficiaries not survive you. The benefits include receiving an estate tax charitable deduction, reducing the burden of taxes on your family, and leaving a legacy to charity.
Designating the Truckee Donner Land Trust as a beneficiary of your life insurance policy is an easy gift for you and your family to make. You can usually make the change to a beneficiary at any time, not just during your policy renewal period. At death the benefits pass to the Land Trust free of federal estate tax and are applied to the mission of the organization, or specific program(s) you designate. This life insurance gift may also be given outright.
Judy Mayorga’s Story
You seldom cross paths with someone who was as generous, kind and humble as Judy Mayorga. A longtime Land Trust Board member and volunteer, educator and artist, Judy passed away in January 2021. In our early years, Judy was the measured and trusted voice of reason on the Board. Barbecues at her house celebrating week-long work crews on the Donner Lake Rim Trail (DLRT) are telling of her giving spirit and stalwart dedication to the Land Trust and the DLRT. With her husband Guillermo (Bill), who preceded Judy in death, she could be found nearly every weekend in the hills, Pulaski in hand, or skiing and hiking. A portion of Judy’s estate was left as a bequest to the Land Trust, which was designated to establish our first long-term endowment.
Support the Land Trust’s Acquisition & Stewardship Endowment
The Land Trust is eternally grateful to Judy Mayorga for providing a generous bequest in her estate that created our first endowment to support future land acquisitions and long-term stewardship of the lands we conserve and manage.
If you would like to help grow this endowment to support the Land Trust’s “forever” work through your bequest, please contact Danielle Williams, Director of Philanthropy, at (530) 410-0962 or danielle@tdlandtrust.org to share your interest in restricting your bequest to the Land Trust’s Acquisition & Stewardship Endowment.
To make a bequest, you should speak with your attorney. Your attorney can help you include a bequest to Truckee Donner Land Trust in your estate plan. Expand to see sample bequest language.
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I hereby give, devise and bequeath ____ percent (___%) OR _____ dollars ($DOLLARS) to Truckee Donner Land Trust, a nonprofit organization located at P.O. Box 8816, Truckee, CA, 96162, Federal Tax ID #68-0245327, designated to the Truckee Donner Land Trust's Acquisition & Stewardship Endowment.
This information is educational in nature. It is not offering professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. Please seek the specific advice of your tax advisor, attorney, and/or financial planner to discuss your unique situation.