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:
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.
Your broker will transfer the shares to ESC’s account; this may take 1-2 weeks.
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.