Betty Brown Calkins and her late husband Jay recognized that a charitable gift annuity could be a “win-win” for their financial planning and for the students they someday hoped to help. “With a charitable gift annuity, you are really helping the University, even though you are receiving something back,” said Betty.

Betty and Jay grew up in Maine and worked as teachers and school administrators in Maine and other states before retiring in Maine. They called the gift planning staff at the University of Maine Foundation in 2002. “Our planned giving officer provided a lot of information and laid it out in a way that made it easy to understand,” Betty shares. “The calculations were easy, and we liked that the models showed us the exact benefits we would receive from the charitable gift annuity. It’s very simple—we just had to write a check!”

“We learned that if we made a donation with a charitable gift annuity, we could get a tax benefit and income from our gift for the rest of our lives. It made so much sense to us for the tax advantages, as well as to support graduate mechanical engineering and education students, that we ended up creating five charitable gift annuities over thirteen years.” Betty says.

Charitable gift annuities are appealing to many for their immediate benefits. Donors have a chance to make an impact on their community by donating to a charity, while receiving immediate tax advantages. In addition, donors receive a guaranteed income stream for life, and the return is generally much higher than interest rates on CDs or bonds. Therefore, the actual cost of a gift is significantly less, dependent on each individual’s tax situation.

“I don’t see any disadvantage to creating a charitable gift annuity,” Betty says. “Even if we had passed away before we were able to receive many of the annuity payments, that’s okay, because the main thing was for the Foundation to receive the money they need to continue their good work in helping students for the future.”

A charitable gift annuity is a simple way to support the future of the University of Maine and to enhance your financial security at the same time. The University of Maine Foundation is not able to offer gift annuities in all states because of registration requirements, but in most states:

Here’s how it commonly works:

• You make a gift of cash and/or appreciated stock to the University of Maine Foundation to fund a charitable gift annuity for the benefit of the University of Maine.
• Fixed payments will then be made to you for life and, if desired, for the life of a loved one such as a spouse, partner or sibling.
• The amount of the fixed payments will depend on the annuity rate for the age of the person(s) who will receive the payments.
• The gift portion of the annuity will become endowed at the University of Maine Foundation only after the annuity ends with the distributions used for the purpose you choose.

Benefits:

• If you itemize deductions on your federal income tax return, you can claim an immediate charitable tax deduction for a portion of your gift.
• You will receive fixed payments for life, a portion of which are nontaxable for a period of time.
• You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have made a meaningful gift to support the University of Maine in perpetuity.

Contact us for more information and if you would like to know if the Foundation could offer a gift annuity in your state.