You want to make a gift now. You establish your own fund or contribute to an existing fund.

You want to make decisions on a Will. You have taken care of all the usual details, assigned sentimental possessions, and provided for relatives.

You provide that all remaining assets go to Your Fund, significantly reducing the taxes otherwise payable by your estate. Your Fund will support community needs in your name permanently.

Or, you simply write a "codicil" (amendment) to your existing Will. You state that in addition to or instead of certain provisions of that Will, you would like to leave the remaining assets or a specific dollar amount, to the Community Foundation. Your lawyer can assist you in making this change.

You have achieved a fairly comfortable accumulation of assets. You would like an income for yourself, your spouse, or other beneficiaries for the rest of your lives. Ultimately you want charity to benefit from your estate.

You establish a charitable remainder trust with the remainder going to Your Fund. You receive a substantial income tax deduction for up to six years, and estate taxes will be reduced upon your death. You and your beneficiaries will receive an income for life. During this time, the trust is treated as a "deferred" fund of the Community Foundation.

If you prefer, you can establish a charitable remainder trust in your Will, providing a life income for your surviving beneficiaries. Because of the charitable estate tax deduction, the surviving beneficiaries may receive a larger income than would otherwise be possible. There are two types of charitable remainder trusts:

Annuity Trust - a fixed income trust from which you or your beneficiaries will receive a set amount each year.
Unitrust - a variable income trust from which you or your beneficiaries will receive a percentage of the trust's assets.

Changes in the asset value of the trust will affect the level of your income each year.

The minimum amount recommended for charitable remainder trust is $50,000.

You have provided for your children, even though estate taxes will take a big bite out of what you leave. but there will be much, much less left for your grandchildren, when increasingly large tax bites are taken out of your children's estates.

You can let up a charitable lead trust. You donate part of your estate to the trust now, and the income goes to Your Fund for a designated period of years. Your estate taxes are reduced and the property is not taxed to your children. When your grandchildren reach maturity, the trust terminates and the assets go to their benefit. Charity benefits during all those years and your grandchildren receive much more than they would otherwise.

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