We thank all our gift planning donors for their generous support. Here is a sample of gift planning donor stories.
Charles "Chip" Steitz's first encounter with Special Olympics was at the 1979 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. Chip went the extra mile then, as he has ever since in service to children and adults with intellectual disabilities -- he helped raise critical funds from friends and family and volunteered his time to ensure a safe, quality athlete experience at those Games.
When Chip arrived in Okinawa, Japan in 1999, he volunteered at the Air Force's Office of Public Affairs on Kadena Air Base. During his 1,600 hours of volunteer work, he became deeply involved in creating a Special Olympics program with the 18th Wing Commander and, in 1999, as an avenue to build relations with neighboring communities and local government representatives while providing a meaningful outlet for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, Special Olympics Kadena was born.
One hundred children and adults with intellectual disabilities competed in Special Olympics Kadena's first Games. A decade later, Chip is thrilled to share that over 1,300 athletes are now participating, showing the world what they CAN do! Each year Chip raises $60,000 in an effort to increase the number of athletes and year-round activities, and promote Special Olympics throughout the Ryukyu Islands. Why he is so committed to Special Olympics? "It's simple." he says. "It's the right thing to do!"
In addition to Chip's tireless efforts and commitment to help teach acceptance, dignity and inclusion through sport, once again he went the extra mile and included Special Olympics in his estate plans. What motivates him to make a legacy gift to the organization? "Special Olympics has a clear vision. The organization attracts highly motivated, dedicated individuals who understand the importance of monitoring financial resources and how to best maximize limited monetary funds."
When we asked Chip what he would say to encourage others to join him in making a legacy gift to Special Olympics, he replied, "All of us are faced with challenges throughout our lives, but seldom do we get the opportunity to help ordinary people participate in extraordinary events, activities and programs. The spirit of Special Olympics is foremost one of joy, but also integrity, pride and respect. It is a spirit of acceptance that transcends social and political boundaries. It is a spirit that inspires us all.
Kathryn Clark believes that Special Olympics "deserves the support of everyone." She not only makes annual contributions to the organization now, but she has made a bequest to support the next generation of Special Olympics athletes. Here's why, in her own words:
"As the only Special Education teacher in a very small mountain community in North Carolina, I had a self contained classroom of 20 students ranging in age from 6-21 and of all ability levels - one student was learning to drive; another was profoundly disabled - they ran the gamut. I had volunteered with Special Olympics while living in New Jersey, but had never actually tried to set up a program or coach, but I wanted something the entire class could succeed in doing. I contacted the state office, got the materials, and started out. Over the next few years the changes were enormous. The students really got into it - we started with athletics, and then added basketball. It was not only sports that changed - through Special Olympics they wrote experience stories, learned math, and were able to travel outside the county for the first time in their lives. Plus, the entire community got involved - students started working with the group on basketball skills; the school would get free time to come to the games; the parents were proud of their children - Special Olympics changed an entire community.
Since then I have worked with Special Olympics in the Caribbean and Africa, and it is always the same. At first everyone is skeptical - people with intellectual disabilities can't possibly compete in sports - and then the very people they called names, mocked, made fun of, become athletes! They compete, they win medals, and then slowly their communities, their families, their teachers begin to see them as achievers - as special for their incredible abilities.
I will support Special Olympics until the day I die, and with my legacy support via a simple bequest, I will continue to support this organization even after my death - it is a life altering organization that deserves the support of everyone."
We’re getting a little older and we find ourselves thinking about the future a lot more than we used to. Not just our future and that of our children, but also the future of our favorite charities; organization's we’ve believed in and supported for so many years. We want to be sure that it will still be doing its job long after we’re gone. So, a few years ago, we decided it was time to start making definite plans to help ensure our favorite charity’s future as well as that of our family.
We started gathering information right here, at this website. Then, we talked to our financial advisors and to the staff of the organization. We spent a rainy Sunday afternoon at home with a calculator, a legal pad, and a pile of mutual fund statements.
After looking over the different gift plans available to us, we decided that a Charitable Gift Annuity was right for us. We were reassured that it would pay us income for the rest of our lives – in a fixed amount that we could depend on, and at a higher yield than our CDs or mutual funds were providing us. We liked the income tax deduction we could claim for setting up our Gift Annuity, and also the fact that part of our annuity income would come to us tax-free.
Best of all, our Gift Annuity has allowed us to make a larger gift to our favorite organization than we would ever have been able to make in an outright gift or through our estate. We’re very satisfied with our decision!
I bought a lot of life insurance when our family was young. Wanted to be sure that Bev and our children would be taken care of should anything unexpected happen to me.
Well, I’m still around, thank goodness. Our children are grown and settled, and Bev and I did little better financially than we ever thought would be possible when we were starting out. Truth is, our family no longer needed all the life insurance coverage I was carrying for them.
That excess insurance was really an asset that was no longer productive for us. We talked about it with our accountant, and she said that we could donate some policies to our favorite charity. We would receive an income tax deduction approximately equal to the cash surrender value of the policies, which would come in very handy at tax time.
Our charity could either cash in the policies and use the funds for current projects, or hold them for the death benefits they will pay when we die.
It was a win-win result: we were able to help our charity out significantly, but we did it by using assets we had almost forgotten about, and in a way that didn’t affect our cash-flow or our family’s security.
We wanted to make a gift to our favorite charity in addition to our annual support – a commitment that would make a lasting impact on the organization our whole family loves.
But how to do it? We can’t afford to give away large sums while we’re alive, and our children are counting on receiving most of our estate. Our financial advisor came up with the creative solution. He had been looking over the annual statements from Tom’s and my IRAs and retirement plans.
“There will be more than adequate distributions available from these plans after you retire to maintain your lifestyle and enjoy yourselves a little bit,” he told us. “In fact, I’ll probably be advising you to minimize your withdrawals and keep the accounts growing.
“But, did you know that any balance remaining in those plans when the second of you dies could be taxed twice if you leave the accounts to your children through your will? That’s right – the balances could be subject to both estate and income tax. Your children could wind up with a lot less than you’re expecting them to get.”
His plan? Designate our favorite charity as the recipient of all or a portion of the remaining balance in our retirement plans. That transfer will be subject to neither estate nor income tax, resulting in a substantial gift to the organization. We were then able to allocate the other assets in our estate to our children, knowing that they can take them free of the double tax that applies to retirement accounts.
The result for us? We solved an estate-planning problem we didn’t even know we had, and found a way to provide long-term support for our favorite institution.
Thank you page coming soon
