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options for your clients

Gifts to an ECF endowment by bequest or within an estate plan let people continue or increase their annual giving patterns forever.

the basics

Charitable giving from assets is a valuable element of financial tax-planning strategy — and such gifts provide great satisfaction to thoughtful donors. Gifts of cash and publicly-traded securities or retirement plan assets are the easiest to transfer. Our gift acceptance policies provide guidance on a wider range of asset types and giving vehicles. Of course ECF also accepts lifetime asset transfers for donor advised funds or outright contributions to other funds. Learn more.

good stewardship and service

The Foundation can help you and your clients to find the options for charitable giving that most appeal to them and best suit their circumstances. We don’t advise donors on tax or legal matters, but we can explain just how their gift can be put to work in the community that’s been so important to them. 

do something to make a difference!

Use our brochure — do something to make a difference! — to launch a conversation with your clients.

our expertise

Unlike national foundations offering donor advised funds under the auspices of financial services firms, we're experts in investing Evanston's resources to best address the challenges of our community, across a wide range of interest areas.

The Evanston Community Foundation is also a resource for your clients' charitable estate-planning needs. We're here for good, ready to carry their values forward.

strategies we support

  • Charitable gifts timed to confer the greatest tax advantage.
  • Additions to or establishment of endowed funds, so that today’s gifts will give and grow into the future.
  • Establishment of donor advised funds, enabling donors to recommend the charitable use of their gifts over time.
  • Gifts of appreciated securities or real estate, potentially reducing the burden of capital gains taxes.
  • Bequests designating ECF in a will or trust as a beneficiary of a specific amount, a percentage, or a remainder — or of a retirement account, in order to preserve for heirs assets taxed at lower rates.
  • Designation as a beneficiary on a no-longer-needed life insurance policy, for a tax deduction now.

 

Please contact Jan Fischer to explore the most beneficial strategies for your client and the community we share.