Legacy Gifts
Planning your legacy is about ensuring a brighter future for your family while supporting your community long after you are gone.
Start here and learn about the different legacy gift options available at the Great Plains Food Bank. Whether you like to put your donation to work today or benefit your charity of choice tomorrow, the Great Plains Food Bank can help you identify a charitable plan that lets you provide for your family and support the community you care about.
FAST FACT: Have you made or intend to make a gift to support the Great Plains Food Bank through a legacy gift? – please complete the online reply form.
For many of our Great Plains Food Bank donors, legacy giving is a perfect way to express support for hunger relief in North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota. Legacy gifts are mostly used as long-term mission impact resources. However, your generosity will lift our neighbors in need today, raise public awareness for tomorrow, while supporting long-term solutions for good.
Legacy gifts often provide good financial benefits to the donor, including tax savings, cash payments, and supplemental support for family and friends – these and other benefits are available depending on a donor’s life circumstances and final wishes.
FAST FACT: Legal name: Great Plains Food Bank | 1720 3rd Avenue N. | Fargo, ND 58102 | TAX-ID: 47-2229589
Legacy Planning
A legacy gift is the result of a donor’s careful consideration of several important factors.
- The purpose or intent of the gift (family values and philanthropic plans)
- The types of family assets used to fund the gift
- The gift’s timing
- The gift’s impact on your family tax obligations
- The impact of the gift on the donor’s family members.
The Great Plains Food Bank can work in collaboration with you and your family’s financial advisor to provide information on planned gift opportunities that work best for your family’s needs and your philanthropic wishes.
Endowment fund
You can pay lasting tribute (in memoriam) to loved ones through gifts made in their names to the Great Plains Food Bank Endowment Fund. Unrestricted gifts to our endowment fund will sustain our core programs and be listed in our annual report. Cash, stock, mutual fund shares, life insurance, real estate, or other property may be used for gifts to the Great Plains Food Bank’s endowment fund.
North Dakota Charitable Tax Credit Program – Qualified Endowment
Individuals, families, and some businesses can make a qualified deferred gift to a qualified North Dakota nonprofit organization, like the Great Plains Food Bank.
To qualify, the contribution(s) to the qualified endowment fund must total a minimum of $5,000 for the tax year. The state tax credit you receive is 40% of the charitable gift allowed by the IRS up to a maximum of $10,000 per year per taxpayer or $20,000 per year per couple filing jointly. For qualifying businesses, they can receive a state tax credit of 40% up to a total of $10,000.
Bequests
FAST FACT: Beneficiary gifts bypass probate court and supersede the Last Will & Testament directives, and go directly to the named beneficiary.
A bequest documented in a Last Will & Testament is often the most common and realistic way for donors to make a significant contribution to the Great Plains Food Bank. When creating your Last Will & Testament, you can make a real impact on hunger in North Dakota by naming the Great Plains Food Bank as a beneficiary with a variety of bequest types.
Wills and revocable living trusts are very important estate planning tools, allowing you to determine who will receive your property (personal & real) after your death. These two popular philanthropic vehicles also allow you to determine the amounts and proportions of your gift(s) under specific circumstances. Tax planning considerations also may affect the provisions of your will or living trust.
Beneficiary Gifts
A beneficiary designation is the simplest way to make a legacy gift to the Great Plains Food Bank. Just name the Great Plains Food Bank as a full or partial beneficiary in one or more of the following giving options.
Retirement plans (401K, Roth IRA)
May enable you to avoid substantial income taxes and they can be set up anytime, even while you are working and still planning your retirement. The simplest way is to name the Great Plains Food Bank as the Primary Beneficiary. Consider using your IRS Required Minimum Distribution (RMDs) as a first-time gift towards ending hunger.
Insurance policies
There are several ways to name the Great Plains Food Bank as a beneficiary of an insurance policy. The simplest way is to list the Great Plains Food Bank as the Primary Beneficiary on your policy.
Bank and Credit Union accounts
Designating the Great Plains Food Bank as the Primary Beneficiary of bank accounts, including checking, savings, certificates of deposits and other accounts is the simplest way to transfer ownership at the time of death, but still allows you full use of the accounts during your life.
FAST FACT: The Great Plains Food Bank uses a licensed broker from one of our business banking partners to help facilitate gifts of securities like stock and mutual fund shares.
Securities – Stocks and Mutual Funds
Designating the Great Plains Food Bank as the recipient of gifts of securities like stock and mutual fund shares enables you to realize tax benefits. Gifts of security can be especially appealing if you are holding shares that are appreciated significantly but yield a low dividend. If you own appreciated securities, like stocks or mutual funds held by you for more than one year, donating them to the Great Plains Food Bank may allow you to reduce or avoid more capital gains taxes and receive a federal income tax charitable deduction.
GIFT ANNUITY and TRUSTS
FAST FACT: You can fund a charitable gift annuity with an irrevocable donation of cash, publicly-traded securities, or other assets, such as real estate, art, or collectibles.
Charitable Gift Annuity
A CGA is a contract between the donor and the Great Plains Food Bank in which the donor makes a gift to the Great Plains Food Bank. In exchange, the Great Plains Food Bank assumes a legal obligation to provide the donor (primary income beneficiary) and up to one additional beneficiary with a fixed amount of monthly income that continues until the last beneficiary dies. When you set up a charitable gift annuity, you can choose to receive income payments for both beneficiaries at the same time, or you can structure it so that payments to the second beneficiary begin only after the death of the primary beneficiary. After the death of the second income beneficiary, the charity receives the remaining value of the annuity.
FAST FACT: A charitable remainder trust allows you to donate generously to the charities of your choice while providing a tax break for yourself and your heirs.
Charitable Remainder Trust
A CRT is an irrevocable trust used to enable donors to give money or property to the Great Plains Food Bank while continuing to receive income from the property for life or for some time up to 20 years. The donor, and/or other beneficiaries (family) receive distributions from the trust annually, and the Great Plains Food Bank (the remainder beneficiary) receives the assets remaining in the trust when the trust ends. The donor gets an immediate income tax deduction for the remainder interest, defers or avoids capital gains tax on the donated assets, and gets gift or estate tax deductions for the remainder interest.
Charitable Lead Trust
A CLT is essentially a charitable remainder trust in reverse. First, the charity receives an income stream (the income interest), then, at the end of the specified trust term, which can be for a term of years, for the lifetime of the donor, or the lifetimes of the donor and the donor’s spouse, any income and principal remaining in the CLT (the remainder interest) can either revert back to the donor or pass to other non-charitable beneficiaries (family) named in the trust.
DISCLAIMER: Please consider this site as a resource to help with planning your philanthropic goals. The information provided on this webpage is for illustrative and recommendation purposes only and should not be considered as legal advice on investment, accounting, or tax obligations. Please consult your wealth advisor or an attorney before making any final decisions.