Help us make a visible difference in the lives of individuals and family members living with Ocular Inflammatory Disease today!
Below you can find many ways to give to the foundation.
Checks can be made payable to The Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation. Please mail your check and donation information form directly to: Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation, 348 Glen Road,Weston, MA 02493. If you have any questions please call the Foundation at 781-647-1431 x407. Please indicate on both the memo of the check and the information form how you would like your funds to be designated.
To make a contribution in honor or memorial of a special person, please call 781-647-1431 x407 or complete this online form.
Corporate matching gifts are a great way to maximize contributions and increase a gift´s impact. By taking advantage of a company´s matching gift benefit, you may be able to double or even triple the amount of a contribution.
A planned gift allows a donor to contribute to The Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation over a period of years or as part of an estate plan. Designed correctly it can generate a charitable income tax deduction. Contributions are made in the form of trusts, bequests or endowments.
Gift of real estate: Any real estate held by you may be given as a gift, even your home. (You can live in the home until death, but get the tax deduction now.) Vacation homes, commercial or income producing property may be gifted as well.
Tax treatment is similar to that of other appreciated assets
Gift of tangible personal property: This can be any type of tangible property–art work, baseball cards, rare books – provided OIUF is willing to accept it. For tax purposes, you should have the property appraised. You get a deduction for the fair market value.
Gift of life insurance: A charitable gift of life insurance can multiply the impact of your donation to OIUF many times over. A gift of life insurance allows you to leverage the gift and ensure that your own personal contribution impacts the OIUF directly in a way greater than you ever thought possible. Even if you have limited discretionary cash flow, you can make a meaningful gift using a life insurance policy while the foundation could receive a significant sum of money.
Besides the good feeling you’ll get from the gift, the other benefits are substantial.
The benefit to the OIUF is immediate. Even if you die today, the OIUF will receive the entire death proceeds from the policy, provided they haven’t borrowed against the policy.
A policy which is owned from inception by the foundation is not an asset included in your estate at your death. Therefore, your estate has no legal or administrative charges associated with your gift.
If you have an existing life insurance policy that you wish to gift to the OIUF, there are some issues you may want to consider. In order to gift the policy, you must assign all rights and deliver the policy to the foundation, retaining no interest in the policy. You may be eligible for an income tax charitable deduction based on the value of the policy transferred to OIUF. The value of the policy is the lesser of its fair market value or its cost basis. Depending upon whether the gift is made “to” or “for the use of” the charity, the amount of your contribution base, adjusted gross income and carry forward provisions, your income tax charitable deduction may be limited.
Another alternative is to purchase or have OIUF purchase a life policy on your life, with OIUF as owner and beneficiary. Your state law will dictate whether or not the OIUF has an insurable interest in your life. If the purchase is allowed by your state, then you can provide the funds to enable the foundation to purchase the insurance on your life. The foundation will receive all rights under the policy. Therefore, it may take a loan, surrender the policy or change beneficiary designation. Additionally, since you don’t own the policy, none of the proceeds will be included in your gross estate at your death.
As with the gift of an existing policy, whether the gift is made “to” or “for the use of” the OIUF, the amount of your contribution base, your AGI and the carry forward provisions, your income tax deduction may be limited.
In all cases, your gift to OIUF results in the availability of an income tax charitable deduction. There are deduction limitations, depending upon the form of the gift. If you pay premiums to the life insurance company itself, you will be eligible for an income tax deduction subject to 30% of your adjusted gross income because the gift is “for the use of” the OIUF. If you gift your premium payments directly to the foundation, your deduction limitation will be subject to 50% of your AGI because it is a direct gift “to” the foundation. Any unused contribution deductions in excess of the 30% or 50% limits for that year can be carried forward in each of the five succeeding taxable years. In addition, most itemized deductions, including the charitable contribution, are subject to phase out at higher income levels.
A gift of a new or existing life insurance policy to the OIUF enables you to donate a significant amount while actually gifting a lesser amount through the payment of insurance premiums.
Other Bequests, retirement plans, 401ks, annuities, etc: Any gift made to OIUF that is stipulated in your will or estate documents. Your estate receives the charitable tax deduction when the gift is made after death. You can also name OIUF as a beneficiary of your retirement account, 401k, IRA, annuity, etc. and your estate may get a corresponding tax deduction.
Some more sophisticated OTC gifting strategies might include:
Charitable remainder trust: This type of trust typically first benefits you or someone designated by you, and then later the OIUF. The trust is created in your name and is funded with a tax-deductible gift (usually consisting of some appreciated asset(s)). Someone designated by you manages the asset and the trust makes regular payments from its income, or a percentage of its principal, to whomever you designate. When the life of the trust ends, the principal or remainder then goes to the OIUF.
Charitable lead trust: In this arrangement, the OIUF typically benefits immediately. You create a trust and make a tax deductible gift. The asset is managed and a regular stream of income from the gift goes to the charity. At the end of the trust’s life, the principal gift can return to you, your heir or someone else.
Gift of publicly traded securities: If you are thinking about making a donation to OIUF, you might consider making a gift of appreciated stock or mutual fund shares rather than a cash donation. A gift of appreciated property often provides increased tax benefits, along with the satisfaction of contributing to a cause you know is important.
Unlike selling stock and subsequently writing a check, a contribution to OIUF of shares of publicly traded securities provides two potential income tax advantages. The first is the charitable deduction, generally the fair market value of the securities at the time of the contribution, subject to certain tax law limits. The second benefit is that you are not taxed on the capital gain that would result if you sold the property. Then OIUF can sell the shares as they see fit without any tax implications.
To gain these benefits, the stock must be long term capital gain property, stock you’ve owned for more than one year or stock you inherited. If the stock would generate a short term capital gain if sold, your charitable deduction is limited to your cost basis rather than the stock’s fair market value.
While donating appreciated stock can give you tax advantages, you might want to think twice about giving stock that has lost value since you bought it. A better plan may be to sell the stock that has lost value and donate the proceeds of the sale. This allows you to realize a capital loss for tax purposes as well as a charitable contribution.
Most brokers and mutual fund companies can assist you in directly transferring shares to the OIUF.
There are more strategies than can be listed here, so if you have an interest in any of those mentioned or would like information on how you can provide for the OIUF in your estate plan or with gifts other than cash, please contact Alison Justus at 781-647-1431 x407 or OIUF@uveitis.org for more information
To comply with IRS regulations, we acknowledge the charitable contribution as 100% deductible. Donors cannot deduct contributions unless they are acknowledged in this manner, and penalties may be imposed by the IRS on charities that fail to make the required disclosure, or for making a disclosure that is inaccurate or incomplete. Our Federal Identification number is 20-1891037. Your donation is an important part of our Foundation’s mission.
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