Finding ways to make the holiday season meaningful may seem difficult if you just turn on the TV. There are plenty of ads forcing you to the malls, shops and even online to make your holiday the best. Many of us have learned though, that you can’t buy yourself into happiness. Stuff is stuff, and there will be more stuff tomorrow and the day after that.
But making charitable contributions to worthy nonprofits provides a way to show gratitude for your blessings, and to manifest new blessings for others. There are several ways to make a planned gift to support a favorite cause or the dreams of a new generation. The Putnam City Schools Foundation has an entire web page full of helpful information that highlights some of those ways.
The Oklahoma City Community Foundation (where we have an endowment that could be a recipient of your end-of-year giving) has several other ways to make a planned gift. One I’ll highlight here is called a Donor Advised Fund.
It’s pretty simple really — make a tax-deductible gift to OCCF using cash, appreciated securities, real estate, royalties or life insurance. Give your gift some time to grow while you think about the organizations you’d like to support. Check them out on http://givesmartokc.guidestar.org. Start making gifts to those places!
Sure there are some nuts and bolts, but it isn’t complicated, and you could start an Express Fund with as little as $1,000! That would go a long way to supporting STEM Labs, YES! Grants for Teachers or other programs you might like to help in Putnam City during this season.
With tax law changes, you could use a donor advised fund to bundle gifts to get your family beyond the new standard deduction.
You can, of course, donate directly to us, and we welcome those gifts graciously, but if you’re interested in strategic philanthropy that helps alleviate your tax responsibility, this might be the right thing for your family.
Learn more from us at www.pcf4kids.org/planned-giving or the OCCF at http://occf.org/fundoptions.