Ways of Giving
Cash Gifts
The easiest, most popular way to donate is to make a gift of cash. You can deduct these gifts when you use the itemized deductions from income taxes. However, such gifts cannot cumulatively exceed 50% of your Adjusted Gross Income. Any deduction not used in the first year can be carried over for up to five additional years or until it is completely used, whichever is first.
Checks should be made payable to Prairie View A&M University and indicate the purpose of your gift on the check or in a cover letter. Please contact the Development Office if you would like more information.
Pledges
Make Your Gift Over Three Years
Pledges are welcomed and may be paid over several years, at your convenience. For gifts $1,000 or more, Prairie View A&M University allows a three-year payment term and also provides a gift agreement, which states the form, schedule, and purpose of your gift.
Planned Gifts
Honorary & Memorial Gifts
A gift in memory or in honor of a teacher, student, relative, friend, or yourself is a generous and thoughtful way to recognize a person’s life and accomplishments.
When you make an honorary or memorial gift to Prairie View A&M University, we notify the honoree or next of kin, and the gift is used as you specified. To make an honorary or memorial gift, send your gift with a note specifying the honoree’s name and the address of the honoree or next of kin.
Income Creating Gifts
There are many ways in which your gift can continue to provide you and/or another beneficiary with annual income. Such gifts are called Life Income Arrangements. These gifts also help reduce potential capital gains taxes, estate taxes and income taxes. Please remember to seek the opinion of your professional tax adviser or legal counsel when making a financial decision.
Gifts of Charitable Gift Annuities
Gifts of cash, securities or other assets can be transferred to Prairie View A&M University in return for annual income. This type of life income arrangement is simply a contract between Prairie View A&M University and the donor. The University receives a gift from the donor and agrees to pay a specified annuity throughout the lifetime of the donor. Once established, the annuity payment does not change. The minimum donation needed to establish a charitable gift annuity is $10,000. These gifts also provide income tax savings, avoid estate and inheritance taxes and save donors' administrative expenses. The amount of charitable deduction from this gift depends upon income beneficiary's age, size of annuity payment and the discount rate in effect at the time of the gift. Also, a portion of the payment can be tax-free if cash is used to create the annuity. Donors have two forms of gift annuities to choose from; deferred annuity and immediate annuity. Deferred annuities do not make payments to the beneficiary until one year has passed from the time of donation. Immediate annuities begin making payments within one year of the time of donation. Please note that deferred annuities can be deferred for whatever period the donor wishes.
Both gift annuities offer significant benefits. Transferring assets such as low-yielding, highly appreciated stocks or CD's into an immediate annuity is a great way to increase spendable income. Deferred annuities, on the other hand, can be included in retirement planning packages because contributions to gift annuities do not affect contributions to qualified plans. The donor receives a significant charitable income tax deduction in the year of the gift, and if payments are postponed until retirement and the donor is in a lower income bracket, the annuity can serve as an excellent supplement to retirement income. Please contact our office for further details.
Gifts of Charitable Remainder Trusts
Placing low-yielding but highly appreciated assets, such as a block of stocks, into a charitable remainder trust is an excellent way to convert these assets into a higher yielding, income increasing gift. Because the sale of charitable trust assets does not have to pay capital gains taxes, more capital remains in the trust to generate income for the income beneficiaries. Charitable remainder trusts are flexible, allowing donors to build retirement accounts, generate higher income from currently owned assets, or shift income to other family members. The donor chooses the trustee and the percentage of return.
There are two different kinds of charitable remainder trusts: the charitable remainder annuity trust and the charitable remainder unitrust.
If you wish to make a substantial capital donation to Prairie View A&M University but feel you cannot afford to give up the annual income generated by your assets then a charitable remainder annuity trust is an excellent option to consider when making your gift decisions. With charitable remainder trusts the amount paid to the income beneficiaries does not change with market fluctuations in the value of the trust's assets. To establish a charitable remainder annuity trust donors simply have to contact the Development Office and arrange for the irrevocable transfer of assets into a trust. The income generated by the trust can be drawn on for life and the remaining principal at the end of the trust becomes the property of Prairie View A&M University.
A charitable remainder unitrust works slightly different than a charitable remainder trust in that the amount paid each year to the beneficiaries is based upon an annual re-evaluation of the assets in the trust. If the principal in the trust grows, so does the beneficiary income. Charitable deductions on this type of trust are determined by the payout selected and the age of the beneficiary.
Each trust generally runs for as long as two lives and will generally pay income to the two individuals, or to a class of people, during that time. Prairie View A&M University retains the assets, or principal, at the termination of the trust period. And if preferred, donors may also select to run these trusts for a set period of years, not to exceed twenty years. Please Contact the Development Office if you would like to know more about these types of gifts.
Gift of Charitable Lead Trusts
Because the charitable lead trust pays annual income from trust assets to the charity rather than the donor this type of trust is often viewed as the opposite of the charitable remainder trust. Donors may place assets in a charitable lead trust as way a of giving to Prairie View A&M University. The trust then invests the assets, and during the term of the trust gives the income to Prairie View A&M University. The assets can revert to the donor or can also be given to the heirs of the donor at the end of the trust’s life. The value of the charitable interest is tax deductible and is often used as means to reducing potential estate taxes while passing control and ownership of the assets to family members. This type of trust is an excellent planning tool but requires considerable care in construction.
Please Contact the Development Office if you would like more information on this type of gift.
Gifts from Your Will
A very popular method of donating gifts from one's estates is to use bequests. Gifts from your will are perhaps the easiest way to leave a legacy. Virtually anyone can make a legacy gift through the vehicle of a simple will. If you would like to support Prairie View A&M University through a gift from your will, feel free to contact the Development office. We will be happy to answer any questions and can assist you with the appropriate language for your attorney to include in your will. Please remember to seek the opinion of your professional tax adviser or legal counsel when making a financial decision.
Gifts of Retirement Assets
Taxation laws make it extremely difficult to transfer qualified retirement plan assets to family members other than spouses. However, charitable gifts funded with assets from qualified retirement plans can often reduce this heavy taxation burden and allow transfer of other assets, at a lower tax rate, to family members. Contact he our Development Office for more information about this type of gift.
Gifts of Life Insurance
Life insurance policies that are no longer necessary for family protection can be used to make substantial gifts to Prairie View A&M University. For example, you may possess a policy intended to provide for your child’s education but which remains in effect after the child has become an adult. In order to use an existing policy as a gift to Prairie View A&M University you simply have to change the owner of the policy. Life insurance policies used as gifts can be used as tax deductions up to the current value of the policy, or the net cost of the policy if that is lower. Premiums paid by the donor after transfer of ownership are also tax deductible.
Real Estate
Outright gifts of real estate are simply deeded to Prairie View A&M University and the donor generates an income tax deduction for the fair market value of the gift.
Prairie View A&M University, in partnership with the Texas A&M University System evaluates all potential gifts of real estate for marketability and potential environmental concerns. As such, we ask that donors supply detailed information on the property before the university accepts the gift.
Gifts of Real Estate
Many donors make gifts of real estate as a way of generating significant tax benefits. Gifts of real estate can consist of almost any type of property: a personal or recreational residence, a farm or ranch, a commercial building, subdivision lots, timberland or any undeveloped parcel of land. The gift can be the entire property or a fractional interest in the property (50% percent, for example). Capital gains taxes can be avoided and the full market value of the real estate becomes deductible as a charitable contribution.
Stocks and Bonds
Gifts of Marketable Securities
Long-term appreciated securities, such as stocks, mutual funds and bonds, are one of the most popular forms of outright gifts. Gifts of appreciated long-term securities usually generate a deduction at the fair market value of the securities, rather than the cost basis, while at the same time relieving you from paying capital gains taxes on your gift because the gift is not considered a sale. The only limitation on these types of gifts is that the deduction for income tax purposes is limited to 30% of the donor's Adjusted Gross Income during the year the gift is made.
Gifts of Closely Held Stock
Stocks from a corporation can be given to Prairie View A&M University. Donors can avoid the capital gains tax on the appreciation of the stock while also deducting the fair-market value of the stock for income tax purposes. This deduction is limited, however, to 30% of the donor’s adjusted gross income in that same year.
