Planned Giving Options

One of the primary ways that you can support our Cupertino Library through the Cupertino Library Foundation is by naming the Foundation as a beneficiary in your will. You can designate an outright gift of a certain dollar amount or you can specify a percentage of your estate.

If you have a substantial estate, but are still using that property, or wish to keep the value of your estate intact during your lifetime. You may want to have an income flow from that asset (stock, property, or insurance annuity) for the rest of your life. We can work with your financial advisor to plan a deferred gift to the Foundation.

Some employers will match your charitable gifts. If your employer has such a program, please enclose their matching gift form along with your contribution, or use existing corporation donation avenues through Benevity or Cybergrants.

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Download the CLF donation form

If you own stock that has appreciated under your ownership, you may owe a capital gains tax when you sell it. Consider using that appreciated stock in your charitable giving through a Planned Gift to the Foundation, and you may find that you no longer owe any taxes on the increased value, and that you are also entitled to a deduction for the full value of the stock at the time it is given to the Foundation.

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Donate to CLF through DonateStock

Lots, acreage, and vacation homes may have appreciated over the years that you have owned them. You may find that your plans have changed and you no longer need or want the property, but would be faced with a substantial capital gains tax because of the appreciation of the property’s value. Your gift of real estate can result in a tax deduction of the fair market value (as determined by an independent appraisal) and an avoidance of the capital gains tax.

By making our Cupertino Library Foundation both the owner and the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, you could benefit from a significant charitable tax deduction. The policy could be one that you no longer need, or it could be a new policy. Some employers have, as an employee benefit, an insurance program which allows for the designation of charitable recipients.

You can protect the estate you have worked so hard to build from excessive reduction due to estate taxes. Through Charitable Remainder Trusts (annuity trusts and unitrusts), appreciated assets can be transferred to the Foundation, and income from those assets can be directed back to the donor. Many of the same tax advantages (avoiding capital gains taxes and receiving the benefit of charitable deductions in the year of the gift) still apply.

The Charitable Remainder Unitrust is a trust in which the appreciated asset (stock, land, etc.) is put in trust for the Foundation. The trust returns an income to the donor for life or for a set time (a maximum of 20 years). Periodic payments of income to the donor (or designated beneficiary) are based on a percentage (not less than 5%) of the trust assets as they are valued annually. Upon the death of the donor (or the designated beneficiary), the principal of the trust is transferred to the Foundation.

The Charitable Remainder Annuity is similar to the unitrust except that the amount of the annual payment to the designated beneficiaries is fixed at a percentage (not less than 5%) of the fair market value of the transferred assets at the time of the creation of the trust and is not revalued each year. The principal of the trust is transferred to the foundation upon the death of the donor.

The Charitable Lead Trust is the reverse of the Charitable Remainder Trust. A donor transfers assets to a trust which pays either a fixed amount (Annuity Lead) or a fixed percentage (Unitrust Lead) to a charity for a specific time period (i.e., 10 or 20 years). The trust then terminates and assets are paid to a beneficiary, usually the donor’s heirs. There are two advantages to this plan. First, the charity receives a beneficial income gift and, second, the gift ultimately goes to the donor’s heirs but at a substantially reduced value for calculating gift taxes. These trusts can provide income to charity when donor’s children are small but then revert to the children when they need it in later years.