Donations Given With Love - Gifts Donated With Wisdom

Giving to change the world in three steps:

* make current gifts of any size - right now

* decide your donation goals for the future

* determine how to accomplish your goals

Happily your giving goals are not limited, even by your life span. Estate gifts have enabled many a worthy organization to greatly expand its reach and effectiveness. Planned giving is not difficult to implement and is important as your final opportunity to impact society.

For everyone's benefit, including your peace of mind, create a will today. A simple formula:

* First give a set percentage or cash amount of the net estate to people - say 25% to kiddos, 5% to grandkids.

* Second give 1% to each of up to 9 worthy causes.

* Third as a "residuary bequest" leave anything that remains to one special cause.

* Fourth, do it today. You can always get more exact later and this simple will can help guide future plans.

Starting with simple changes you can add a charity beneficiary to a pension or retirement plan, life insurance policy, or within your will or estate planning trust. You can give even give ownership of a current life insurance policy to your favorite charity.

You can derive tax benefits now, for your estate recipients later, or a combination using planned giving tools - do what is best for you! While tax considerations may have importance - your giving should always reflect your philanthropic intent. Focus primarily on your gift giving goals - not on changing nuances of tax law.

You can also gift appreciated assets such as stocks and real estate. Many charities and organizations also value personal property gifts of cars, boats, telescopes, books, tools and other useful items. Contact appropriate organizations that share your passions and see if they wish to receive your specific donation.

In summary; give what you can give enjoy giving now -- plan for how you would like to be remembered later.

Now is the time to fashion your own personal legacy of encouragement so that it will extend far into the next age.

Increase support for your favorite cause by asking five friends to donate also. You can have a large impact and everyone benefits, the cause, you, and your friends. This converts your salutatory gift into a major gift.

You may want to consider making a leadership gift and so inspire others to philanthropy. A major transformational gift can change the character of the cause you support - taking it national or international, providing top quality facilities to enhance effectiveness, or jumping past several awkward stages within a slower growth process.

The solid foundation of philanthropy is that it feels good to help.

I am not a charitable giving specialist or a full time director of planned giving. I'm founder and rector of a new style of college that is laying a foundation for the necessary re-engineering of higher education.

These directed donation ideas reflect areas where I am interested and have had some experience; this is a much broader and deeper field than it was over 25 years ago when I first studied it. For complex situations or questions of law consult your personal professional advisers.

Contact me if you have further questions, there is a contact link at the top of this page by my picture. Any time you are in Southern California I'd also enjoy meeting you for a cup of coffee or tea to talk about your ideas. Even though I support Bastiat Free University and find it exciting and fulfilling to give -- I promise not to mention giving to support BFU unless you mention it first.

I'll even be glad to act as a sounding board for gifts you plan to give other causes. You can call me Allan.

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100% of direct income from my lenses goes to micro-finance solutions for world poverty provided by the Grameen Foundation. The Grameen Foundation is creating a rising tide of positive influence upon our world.

Will YOUR life be based on what you want to use it to accomplish, or by random urges of what you want to do?

"We hear fables about the past, we develop dreams of the future, but the work needs to be done today." - Allan R. Wallace