Your legacy gift to VisionGift will bring the world into focus for millions of patients suffering from eye disease and will help propel our research, improving transplant and eye banking practices around the world.
Reasons to include VisionGift in your estate planning
1. Leave a Meaningful Legacy
Including a VisionGift in your estate plan allows you to support our mission to treat preventable blindness and advance sight for all through our research. Your contribution can make a lasting difference and cement your legacy as someone passionately committed to this important cause.
2. Potential Tax Benefits
Donating a portion of your estate to a non-profit can reduce the overall taxable
value of your estate, potentially lowering the estate taxes passed onto your heirs. In some cases, charitable contributions may also qualify for income tax deductions if structured appropriately.
3. Support Future Generations
By designating funds to VisionGift, you help ensure that our mission continues beyond your lifetime. This enables us to find better ways to treat preventable blindness and support the medical community through surgeon training, as well as providing the opportunity for transplantation through our work with eye donations. Many organizations rely on planned gifts to sustain their programs and initiatives.
4. Set an Example for Others
Your decision to include charitable giving in your estate plan can inspire others to embrace philanthropy. It can encourage a culture of giving and social responsibility among your loved ones and your community. It’s never too early to start planning your legacy. VisionGift is proud to honor our planned giving community through our website and newsletter, highlighting this important consideration.
Why Inform the Non-Profit?
While not required, notifying the non-profit of your intended gift can help them plan for the future.
Explore options to leave a lasting legacy
Bequest
If you believe everyone has the fundamental right to see, consider including VisionGift in your will or estate plan. Giving via your estate can be as simple as including bequest language like this in your will or trust:
“I give, devise, and bequeath to VisionGift, _ percent of my estate or the sum of $_ (or stocks, bonds, property, or other assets) to support the organization’s mission.
Insurance policies and IRAs
You can support our work by giving via an insurance policy or Individual Retirement Account.
You can make VisionGift a beneficiary (or partial beneficiary) of your IRA or an insurance policy by contacting your insurance or IRA administrator.
You can also donate directly from your retirement account’s required minimum distributions.
Donor-advised funds
Donor-advised funds are a tax-advantageous way to support charitable organizations you believe in. Talk to your local community foundation or give us a call if you’d like to explore giving via a donor-advised fund.
Other ways to give
We’re happy to discuss other charitable giving options, such as gifts of stock and appreciated assets and Charitable Gift Annuities. To learn more and discuss your options for supporting the life-changing work of VisionGift, please contact Chris Stoeger at Chris@visiongift.org or (503) 808-7002
“Anytime you can tell somebody how peoples’ lives are changed by the gift of a cornea, I hope they listen to you and take it seriously because it’s truly amazing. I get up every morning and it is a beautiful thing to be able to see. It is life changing.”
Joe, Cornea recipient
