By Marie Moebius
A legacy gift is a gift to a charity or non-profit organization in your will. It can be a piece of property, cash, or a percentage of your estate. Legacy gifts play a key role in supporting charitable organizations, yet many people don’t know that they’re an option, how they are paid out, or the tax benefits of these gifts.
While legacy giving makes it possible to leave much larger gifts than otherwise possible, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to be wealthy to leave a legacy gift. You can leave as much or as little as you want – there is no gift too small to make an impact. It only takes a few minutes to leave a gift to charity but it creates a legacy that lives on forever.
Actually, many donors don’t have the capacity to give major gifts on an annual basis but they can make a major gift by using other types of assets, like art and life insurance policies, and more thoughtful planning through estate gifts and endowments.
All bequests are revocable during the life of the donor — a will can be changed any number of times.
Planned giving testimonials
Robin Stacey
Robin will proudly tell you that her love for libraries comes from the childhood, when her mother would take her to the local public library in Plainview, New York. From these days, she remembers the smell of books, the daily newspapers displayed on wooden hangers, and the comfort of being welcomed in a non-competitive ambiance.
Now an accomplished business-owner, a mother of two adult and accomplished children, Robin wants to make sure that other kids will enjoy the same bliss that she enjoyed as a child. Robin moved to San Miguel only 2 years and a half ago, plays golf every week, found friends and love in our pueblo, and recently decided to give to the Biblioteca an endowment.
She explains how easy it was to set her will: a simple email to her lawyer and a digital form to fill up with the basic information: the amount of the donation, the denomination of the beneficiary, and the conditions of the donation. With those instructions, she is secure that the Biblioteca will receive the donation and use it in the way she recommends. When she evokes what motivates her to donate for a project which will long last after her, she refers to her personal will power. The act of giving is for her an act of freedom, an act of choosing in full conscience where she wants to leave an impact.
Robin also knows that Everyone should have a will because no one knows when they are going to die and because everything you own during your lifetime you also own after your death. You have the authority to direct what happens to your property after you have died, but if you choose not to make a will the state will make that direction for you.
Marcia Herman
A generous donation to the Scholarship program of the Biblioteca Publica was anonymously given in honor of Marcia Herman through the San Miguel de Allende Jewish Cultural and Community Center (JC3).
Marcia was a passionate educator. She cultivated a strong connection with the youth as she taught in New York City schools for 35 years. In this same spirit of compassion and altruism, many talented students from San Miguel de Allende will receive the support they need to achieve a brighter future through education.
A little history:
One of the most famous and earliest bequests was given by Ben Franklin in 1790. He left the equivalent of $4,000 (in today’s dollars) to be divided between the people of the state of Pennsylvania (76 percent) and the city of Philadelphia (24 percent) on the condition that it not be touched for two hundred years. (Franklin had great faith in the future of his state and city!) In 1990, when the two hundred years were up, Franklin’s bequest was worth $2.3 million.
Your legacy gift will provide support for many generations to come at the Biblioteca Publica. For more information about a bequest to the Biblioteca Publica, contact: bobremak@yahoo.com
