Future IRA Gift Options
You may appreciate the desire of Congress
to assist in charitable giving by permitting
current IRA rollover gifts to charity.
However, perhaps you are already making
good use of your IRA income and may be
interested in helping charity in the future
rather than right now.
Bequest of IRA
There are several ways that you can make
a future gift of your IRA to charity. One
option is to designate charity as the
beneficiary of your IRA. This permits you
to continue to take withdrawals from your
IRA during life and then leave the
remaining value of your IRA to charity.
Testamentary IRA Gift Annuity
Another option is to make a future gift of
your IRA to charity while providing life
income to your heirs. Your family will
receive fixed payments based on age at
rates that can be as high as 11.3%.
Give it Twice Testamentary IRA
Unitrust
An IRA could also be transferred to a
special “Give It Twice” trust, that usually
provides income to children for a period of
up to 20 years. After that time, the trust
may pass to charity, creating a wonderful
way for you to make a charitable gift.
Charitable Giving Through Individual Retirement Accounts
In order to help charities further their good work, Congress recently changed the rules for charitable gifts made from individual retirement
accounts (IRAs). If you are over age 70 1/2, the Federal government now permits you to rollover amounts from your IRA to charity without
claiming any increased income or paying any additional tax. These tax-free rollover gifts could be $1,000, $10,000 or any amount
up to $100,000 in one year. Here are several reasons why you might want to take advantage of this special opportunity.
Simple, Easy Gift
If you are like many individuals, your IRA has
increased in value over the years and you have
more income than you may need. The IRA
rollover gift is a simple and easy way to
provide for your favorite charity, while not
increasing your taxable income. Simply
contact your custodian and request that an
amount be transferred to charity. Charity
gets a nice gift and you avoid any additional tax.
Make a Major Gift
Perhaps you are considering your tax planning
goals and would like to make a major gift to
charity. Like many individuals, your IRA may be
the largest asset in your estate. Your CPA
may be looking for ways to save taxes. By
making annual IRA charitable rollover
gifts of up to $100,000, you can reach your
goals of helping charity in a significant way and
reducing taxable income.
You Can Give More!
Perhaps you have already made cash gifts to charity
this year up to the Federal limit. Your charitable
deductions for cash gifts are limited to 50% of
your adjusted gross income for a given year.
Maybe you are a generous donor and desire
to give even more this year. With an IRA
rollover gift, you can transfer excess funds
from your IRA to charity and still make your
regular cash gifts up to the Federal level. You can
give more without paying any more in tax.
Easy IRA Gift
Generous IRA Donor
Major IRA Donor
Martha was a retired county administrator and a volunteer for her favorite charity. Martha’s retirement
plan with the county had grown substantially and she had almost $450,000 in her IRA. Since Martha
had all of the income she currently needed, she decided to make a gift of $2,000 from her IRA to her
favorite charity. Martha called her custodian and requested a transfer of part of her minimum
distribution amount. It was easy for Martha to make the gift and she liked the fact that she could help
her favorite charity without increasing her taxes.*
Luke was a retired Navy Officer and a regular supporter of charity. He was an avid volunteer and
made annual cash gifts to charity up to the Federal limit, which is 50% of Luke’s adjusted gross
income. However, Luke wanted to make a one-time gift to a particular charity for a special project,
without exceeding Federal limits or increasing his taxes. Luke decided to make a charitable gift of
$10,000 from his IRA to charity. He was able to continue to make his regular contributions in addition
to the IRA gift. The satisfaction he gained from helping charity was immeasurable.*
Ralph was a retired investment advisor. He had watched his IRA blossom and grow through good
investments. It now was the largest asset in his estate. Based on his age and the increased value,
his required distribution this year was nearly $100,000! Ralph was a frequent volunteer for his
favorite charity and wanted to make a major gift to a special project. In November, he decided that
he did not actually need the distribution for this year. So, Ralph contacted his IRA custodian and had
the full $100,000 IRA payout sent to favorite charity. He and his CPA were both delighted - Ralph
made a wonderful gift and his tax situation was simplified.*
* Please check with your qualified tax advisor to learn about your IRA charitable rollover tax benefit
country wide
About My World GIS
My World GIS™ is a Geographic Information System (GIS) designed specifically for use in middle school through college classrooms. It has been developed by the GEODE Initiative at Northwestern University as part of a research program on the adaptation of scientific visualization and data analysis tools to support inquiry-based learning. My World gives learners access to geographic data about our world. It offers easy-to-use tools to perform investigation and analysis as they explore critical issues about the enviornment, geography, geology, demography, history, and much more. Data visualization is ideally suited for learners because it provides a powerful way to make visible the patterns and trends that lie hidden in complex data.
By providing easy access to rich data sets, My World opens the door for learners to explore real-world issues that impact our world.My World provides a carefully selected subset of the features of a professional GIS environment. These features include multiple geographic projections, table and map views of data, distance-measurement tools, buffering and query operations, and customizable map display. They have been selected to provide the greatest value to students without overwhelming them with complexity. Additional features targeted specifically at educational users have been added, including functions that make it easy for teachers and curriculum developers to distribute data to students and to provide students with background information and instructions online.
My World's features are accessed through a supportive interface that was designed with the needs of students and teachers in mind and has been tested extensively in classrooms. Because it has been developed by educational researchers working closely with teachers and school technology coordinators, My World is also designed to function well in school computing environments where security software may limit students' access to local storage or Internet access may not be reliable. My World can import data from the industry-standard shapefile format, as well as from tab and comma-delimited text files and from GPS devices. It is also able to access data and imagery dynamically over the web.
My World is Designed for ClassroomsMy World's Welcome Window provides quick links to tutorials and help as well as online curriculum materials and data archives. You can author your own tours.
Project Library. My World comes pre-loaded with classroom-ready projectsTeaching Support. Teachers can customize projects to open with activity sheets to guide student thinking.Compatible with School Computing Environments. My World has been designed for use in schools and has been widely tested. It works well on the computers that schools have today. It is compatible with security software, networked environments, and firewalls. My World runs under Windows, MacOS, and Linux with an identical user interface on all platforms. Explore Global DataModes reduce complexity and help students understand the structure of the task.Data Libraries are part of “Construct” mode, so users can easily drag datasets to the layer list without having to dig through the operating system.Layers represent each type of data on the map and can be edited, reordered and hidden.Selections display a new, permanent subset of each table. Users create selections visually or analytically.… or Explore Local Data.Links connect My World maps with photos, web pages, and movies. Click on the feature or the flag to open the link.In Edit Mode students can create their own layers by drawing or importing data. They can create their own links to photos or other multimedia and add their own annotations and labels to their maps to share with others.
Access Data in Many FormatsExpandable Data Library. My World comes with a large library of geographic data, and it is easy to import new datasets. My World supports most standard GIS data formats. And the software provides built-in links to our ever-expanding online library of data sets.Connect to Online Satellite and Aerial Image Servers. My World supports the Web Map Server (WMS) protocol, which allows you to access aerial and satellite photos dynamically over the web from servers including Microsoft's Terraserver, USGS Landsat server, and NASA Blue Marble. Like Google Maps and other popular online mapping services, My World dynamically updates the display of the layer as you zoom and move around, providing you with an image at the optimum resolution.My World Supports Students in Quantitative & Database AnalysisData tables underlie each layer, allowing users to sort, select, and add columns.Analysis Mode provides a supportive interface to allow students to compute math operations on data, query data based on geographic relationships and data values, and do simple statistical analyses. Plots and Graphs enable students to visualize data in line-plots, histograms or bar charts, and scatter plots. Compare MapsChild Windows. You can place two or more maps side by side to compare them by creating separate "Child Windows." Child Windows can be synchronized with the main window so that any time you zoom, pan, or click on a point in one window, the same thing happens in the other windows. Or, you can use an unsynchronized Child Window to show a large area while you zoom in on a portion of it in the main window. Child Windows also make it possible to view and sample several different grids at the same time. Child Windows are particularly useful for working with gridded (raster) data.
Named Views. This feature allows you to save a particular "view" within a mapview and return to it immediately at any time in the future. For example, zoom to Antarctica, turn off a few layers, and choose the variables to display. Then save it as the named view "Antarctica". Then go to Brazil and do the same thing. Immediately switch from the "Antarctica" view to the "Brazil" view using a pull-down menu at the bottom of the layer list. Or, change all the layers to display values for 1980. Save that as "1980". Then change all the layers to display values for 1990. Save that as "1990", and use the view menu to go back and forth.
