Planned Giving

• Reasons for Considering Planned Gifts in Your Estate Planning
• How to Create an Endowment

Planned gifts are those that require professional planning based on their size, nature, or complexity. They can include life income, outright, or deferred gifts, as well as will and trust allocations in estate plans.

The Planned Giving program is conducted in a confidential manner, assisting alumni and friends of the College who want to make gifts of cash, securities, insurance, or by bequest, life income, personal property, or real estate. As they consider their long-term estate plans, many people decide to remember the institutions that have played an important part in their lives, including their alma mater. A variety of planned giving instruments provide donors with income for life while providing tax advantages, too. Planned gifts are typically made in support of specific purposes, especially in the areas of student and faculty support. They are also used to establish endowments for contributions in perpetuity.

Reasons for Considering Planned Gifts in Your Estate Planning

• Reduce income taxes
• Avoid the penalty and tax on large retirement plans
• Increase income
• Leave a larger estate
• Avoid the forced sale of a family business
• Establish a larger retirement plan
• Insulate assets from legal liability
• Reduce or eliminate estate taxes
• Provide for dependents with special needs
• Avoid the penalty and tax on retained earnings
• Establish a perpetual family legacy for philanthropic purposes
  • How to Create an Endowment
  • How to Make Gifts of Cash
  • How to Make Gifts of Real Estate
  • How to Make Gifts of Personal Property
  • Gifts that Produce Life Income
  • Gift Annuity
  • Deferred Payment Gift Annuity
  • Pooled Income Fund
  • Charitable Remainder Trusts
  • Bequests - Gold & White Society
  • Giving Through Your Retirement Plan
  • Giving Life Insurance

How to Create an Endowment

Endowments are critical to the future of Rhode Island College. An endowment is a designated amount that is invested to produce annual income in perpetuity, which is then directed toward the donor's interests. Only the income from the endowment is used; the principal of the fund is preserved.

An endowment at the College has the following features:

• The minimum gift to establish an endowment is $10,000, with payments scheduled over a period of years if wished.
• An endowment can be established in your own name, in the name of your family business, in honor of someone important to you, etc.
• You can specify how the endowment income will be used. The income can be directed to a particular college, department, or program at the College. It can be used to support scholarships, library resources, research equipment, or chairs and professorships, which provide income for salaries and research activities for the College's outstanding faculty.
• An endowment can be funded through a variety, or combination, of ways including:
  • cash
  • testamentary
  • trust provision
  • securities
  • life insurance
  • real estate
  • charitable trusts
  • antiques or collectibles
  • gift annuity
  • will bequest
  • pooled income fund
• All endowments managed by the Rhode Island College Foundation are audited annually by an outside firm and are reflected in its annual report of gifts.