Planned Giving Opportunities

Planned Giving provides numerous opportunities to support CDU in its mission to educate and evangelize adults in the Catholic faith. With planned giving, you can continue to impact CDU even when you are no longer able to provide ongoing support.

Will Bequests

You can bequeath money to CDU simply by stating the gift in your will. The gift can be stated in terms of a specific dollar amount, a percentage of the estate, or the remainder of the estate after other obligations and bequests are met. If you would like specific bequest language to add to your will, please email legal@cdu.edu. Leaving a will bequest can continue your support of CDU in a lasting way, and the charitable donation reduces your overall exposure to estate taxes.

Life Insurance

Life insurance provides an excellent opportunity to leverage your charitable contributions into a substantial gift to CDU. There are several ways you can use life insurance.

• You can gift a currently held, paid up policy to CDU and receive an income tax charitable deduction approximately equal to the cash value, and the policy will be removed from the calculation of your estate. CDU would then become both the owner and beneficiary of the policy and receive the proceeds of the policy when paid.
• You can gift an in-force policy to CDU, receive an income tax deduction for the current value of the policy, and make annual gifts to cover the policy premium. This provides a means of reducing your estate over time through a program of ongoing charitable giving, and results in a final gift to CDU that is significantly greater than would have resulted from making the same dollar level of annual contributions directly to CDU.
• You can retain ownership of the policy and include CDU as either a 100% beneficiary, or a shared or contingent beneficiary. This option would not remove the policy from your estate, but the portion of the proceeds actually paid to CDU on pay-out would be an allowable deduction from your estate as a charitable contribution.

Retirement Plans

Retirement Plan Accounts are often excellent choices for charitable gifts, since leaving retirement plan money to a family member generally results in double taxation of the money-once in your estate, and a second time as income to the new recipient during pay-out. By designating CDU as the beneficiary of the retirement account, the funds are deductible from the estate as a charitable gift.

Gifts of Stock

Gifts of stock can also be an effective way of contributing more to CDU than you may be able to do using cash. When you sell appreciated stock to give cash to CDU, you end up paying capital gains on the appreciation; if you have held the stock for a long time, or it has appreciated significantly, this can equal a significant loss to taxes. If you donate the stock to CDU, you receive an income tax charitable deduction for the year, and CDU can sell the stock and not pay the same taxes on appreciation, effectively getting more out of the stock than you could have done.

This information is intended to provide you with a brief introduction to some of the options available to you; you should consult your legal and financial advisors before making any irrevocable gifts.

If you are interested in making a planned gift to CDU please feel free to contact us for more information.