Donating securities is easy!

Perhaps you are a person with a grateful and generous heart who is also fortunate enough to own a “security” (i.e. a stock, mutual fund, or bond).  If you are inclined to make a donation to the Environmental Science Center (ESC), there is a simple way to donate a security.

Steps to donate securities:

1. Fill out the Instructions to Donor’s Broker Form for securities you have owned for over 1 year.  Follow the instructions to send this form to your broker and to the ESC.
2. Your broker will transfer the shares to ESC’s account; this may take 1-2 weeks.
3. When the stock arrives in ESC’s TD Ameritrade account, it will be sold promptly and a tax-deductible thank you letter will be sent to you.  Please keep this letter for tax-deductible purposes.

Questions? Want to donate securities using actual stock certificates?  Call Tara Luckie, Executive Director, at 206-248-4266.

What’s the financial benefit of donating securities instead of cash?

[Disclaimer: please confirm details with your tax adviser before donating securities]

A gift of appreciated securities held for more than one year may provide significant benefits to you as a contributor, such as:

• Allowing you to a charitable income tax deduction for the fair market value of the gifted securities as of the date of gift.
• Eliminating capital gains tax that would ordinarily become due if you had sold the appreciated securities on the open market and donated the proceeds from the sale to charity.
• Claiming your charitable deduction against up to 30% of your adjusted gross income.
• Providing a way to help you to achieve your long-term financial objective of reducing your income and estate taxes.

Example of tax benefit to you:

Let’s suppose you bought some stock for $3,000 over a year ago and it grew to be worth $4,000. If you sold the stock, paid the capital gains tax, and donated the net proceeds, ESC would receive less than $4,000; you would receive a tax deduction equal to that same amount. Alternatively, if you donated the stock to ESC, you would receive a tax deduction for the full “fair market value” of the stock (in this case, $4,000). And you would have avoided having to pay a capital gains tax on these shares.