Leaving a Legacy for Community Benefit

Over 30 charitably minded community members attended the Legacy Planning 101 event co-hosted by the Community Foundation and UC Santa Cruz Gift Planning on February 19 featuring estate attorney Emily Buchbinder. The Community Foundation’s Chief Philanthropy Officer, Kea Gorden, and Donor Services Director, Hilary Bryant, also spoke with attendees about the various estate and gift-planning options through the Foundation’s resources and charitable giving vehicles.

Emily, a longtime partner of the Foundation, started the event with a robust presentation on the various options for estate planning available, including wills and trusts, and the legal processes involved with moving real assets to children and spouses. Prompted by audience questions, she also explained the best way to set up a charitable distribution through a retirement account.

Giving for Impact

Kea expanded on the charitable giving options that the Community Foundation offers, including charitable gift annuities (CGA), qualified charitable distributions (QCD), and charitable remainder trusts. (CRT).

“These options allow you to provide a future gift to charity while receiving tax benefits and a long-term income stream for you and another beneficiary. ” Kea said.

As the Foundation’s new CPO, Kea brings years of experience in planned giving, including in her most recent role as Senior Associate Director of Gift Planning at The University of Chicago.

She and Hilary lead a team that works to help our donors’ generosity make the most impact in the community while meeting their financial planning needs.

Simple Tools for Charitable Giving

In her role as Donor Services Director, Hilary specializes in helping Foundation donors draft their Memorandum of Charitable Intent (MOCI) as a useful mechanism for their testamentary charitable giving in tandem with their estate plans. A unique giving tool pioneered by the Community Foundation, a MOCI is a simple document that can help individuals create and direct gifts to charitable causes from their estate plans upon their passing.

“We’re here to be a resource for you. If you want to do charitable giving to a local or national nonprofit, we’ll be happy to help,” Hilary said.