Planned Giving

Cornerstone Society: Make a Gift that will last a Lifetime

Glenwood Academy Golf outing

Glenwood Academy’s Cornerstone Society was established to recognize special benefactors who make commitments to the future of Glenwood Academy through bequests and other planned gifts. This growing list of generous donors will ensure their legacy continues and the vision of Glenwood Academy to eradicate poverty, injustice and inequity through the power of residential education will carry on for generations to come.

Becoming A Member of our Cornerstone Society

Membership is available to any individual who makes a commitment to Glenwood Academy through their estate plans, life income arrangements, life insurance, real estate, or retirement plan gifts.

Types of Planned Gifts

A planned gift to Glenwood Academy is any major gift, made in lifetime or death, as part of an individual’s overall financial and/or estate planning. A planned gift to Glenwood can secure significant tax advantages for you and your loved ones and allows you to use a variety of assets such as real estate, retirement plans and appreciated stocks.
You can choose from a wide variety of planned giving options.

This is the act of giving or leaving something in your will. These are the most common type of planned gifts, which are easily arranged and tax deductible. A codicil can easily be made to an existing will and can be designated as unrestricted or restricted for a specific purpose. Several types of bequests are available.

This is an arrangement between you and Glenwood Academy in which you receive regular payments for life, based on the value of assets you transfer to Glenwood Academy. If you are over the age of 60, you can make an irrevocable gift (minimum $10,000) to ensure the future of Glenwood Academy and receive fixed lifetime annuity payments for yourself and other beneficiaries. Payments may begin immediately or be deferred to a later date. The annuity rate depends on the ages of the annuitants and the starting date of the payments. You will be entitled to a substantial charitable gift deduction when the gift is made and a portion of your gift annuity payments will have reduced taxes. If you use highly appreciated assets to fund your gift, capital gains tax can be minimized.

Naming Glenwood Academy as the remainder beneficiary of a trust is another option. Gifts of cash or property can be transferred to a charitable remainder trust, which will pay income to the donor and/or other beneficiaries for life. There are two types of charitable remainder trusts. Charitable remainder annuity trusts pays the donor a fixed income for life. Charitable remainder unitrust pays the donor a variable income for life

This is designed to reduce your taxable income by first donating a portion of the trusts income to charity. This option places your assets into a trust that will pay income to Glenwood Academy for a specified amount of years, after which the property is turned over to your children, grandchildren or other heirs. This is an excellent way to create significant tax advantages for yourself if you wish to transfer your estate to heirs at a later date.

A gift of life insurance provides an opportunity to make a significant contribution to Glenwood Academy and receive a charitable deduction for the policy’s value. You may consider designating Glenwood as the beneficiary, co-beneficiary, remainder or residual beneficiary of a life insurance policy.

Naming Glenwood Academy as a beneficiary of a qualified retirement plan is becoming an increasingly more popular option among donors. Due to the way IRA’s, 401K’s and other taxed-deferred pension plans are taxed at the time of death, very little of the assets in your plan may wind up in the hands of family members or individual beneficiaries. A gift of life insurance gives you an opportunity to make a significant contribution to Glenwood and receive a significant tax deduction for the policy’s value.

Donors may opt to transfer a personal residence, farm or investment property to Glenwood Academy. This gift can be given outright or you have the option to continue to use and enjoy the property for life. This gift can provide substantial tax benefits and provide a lasting legacy to Glenwood Academy.

A gift of securities is a valuable way to give back to Glenwood Academy. With careful planning, you can reduce or even eliminate federal capital gains tax, while supporting the work we do. When you donate publicly traded stock that you have owned for more than one year to Glenwood, you are entitled to a federal income tax deduction based on the current fair market value of the securities, regardless of the original cost.

As more individuals hold appreciated assets in mutual funds in their retirement plans, the shares are becoming an important part of charitable giving. Charitable gifts of mutual fund shares have the same tax advantages as gifts of individual securities.

When you redeem savings bonds, you or the person you whom you leave your bonds will owe income tax on the appreciation. You can reduce or even eliminate the income tax on bonds you own that have stopped earning interest by gifting to Glenwood Academy.

For more information, please contact our Annual Giving Director, Nora Sheahan at [email protected] or 708.756.5102, while also consulting with your attorney or financial advisor.