Why Work With Us?
Your client wants to give back to our community – here’s how The Erie Community Foundation can help you:
- Awareness of the region's most pressing challenges and needs
- Comprehensive knowledge of local nonprofits
- Bureaucracy-free solutions for your clients’ charitable gifts
- Fund agreements adapted to your clients’ specifications
- Public recognition for your commitment to your clients and to our community
- Appreciation and respect for your role as your clients’ trusted advisor
When to Talk with Your Clients about Charitable Giving
1. Your client wants to leave a legacy.
In addition to providing your client with significant tax advantages by including a charitable provision in your client’s estate plan, you can also help them give to their favorite nonprofits forever through a named endowment established at The Erie Community Foundation.
2. Your client is working on year-end tax planning
Your client just earned a large bonus or his business created extraordinary profits. He or she wants to share that good fortune with the community, but has little time at year’s end to decide how to maximize the impact of such good fortune. You can recommend a donor-advised fund at the Foundation, which would allow your client to realize an immediate tax deduction, while giving him or her time to seek advice regarding the most effective use of his or her charitable assets. Actual grantmaking can be done at the client's convenience.
3. Your client owns highly appreciated stock
If your client has highly appreciated stock and is willing to consider a charitable gift, he or she can receive a tax deduction for the full market value, while avoiding the capital gains tax that would otherwise arise from the sale of the stock. Closely held stock can also be used as gift property.
4. Your client would like a little more retirement income
Your client may find he or she is not reaping sufficient income from their appreciated assets. A charitable gift annuity or charitable trust can help your client achieve their charitable objectives while preparing them well for retirement.
5. Your clients have substantial IRA/401(k) assets
The Foundation can help you and your client evaluate giving more to his or her heirs and still achieving significant charitable objectives. For example, it is usually more tax advantageous for a donor to give retirement assets to charity and other assets to their heirs. Income tax and possibly estate taxes often dilute the value of an IRA or other retirement assets left to an heir.
6. Your client is selling a business
Your clients own highly appreciated stock in a company that is about to be acquired. The Foundation can work with you to suggest several ways to structure a charitable gift (including the use of planned giving techniques) to help them reduce capital gains tax and maximize the impact to their favorite charitable causes.
7. Your client wants an alternative to a private foundation
When your client either doesn't have the substantial resources needed to start a private foundation, or lacks the time to oversee its administration, the Foundation can help you and your client consider simpler, more cost-efficient alternatives to a private foundation, such as a donor-advised fund.
By working with The Erie Community Foundation, you can offer your clients real tax advantages and the opportunity to make the greatest charitable impact. Call us today at 814-454-0843.