Express your support for our hunger-relief efforts through a long-term commitment. A planned gift or “legacy” gift can help us to secure and distribute food and groceries to those in need, raise public awareness of hunger in our city, and promote viable solutions to hunger and waste. A planned gift results from the donor's careful consideration of a number of important factors:

• Purpose of the gift and the assets to be used to fund the gift
• The gift's timing, its effect on income-tax and estate-tax planning
• Impact on the donor's family members and friends.

A planned gift is best made with the counsel of one's financial advisor, such as your attorney, accountant, banker, financial planner or insurance professional. This type of gift can be realized in many ways:

Bequests – Wills or Revocable Living Trusts

Stock and Other Securities

Life Insurance

Retirement Plans

Tax-Free IRA Contributions

We are grateful to those who make planned gifts to the Food Bank. Our Food for Life Circle honors your planned gift by listing you or a loved one in our memory garden and publications. If you choose, you may make your planned gift anonymously.

To learn more about planned giving options at the Food Bank, please contact Catherine Homsey, at (415) 282-1900, ext. 247 for a confidential consultation.

Remembering the Food Bank in your will or revocable trust is often the most meaningful way to leave a legacy. These gifts make it possible for the Food Bank to plan ahead in the fight against hunger. Following is suggested language for a bequest: 
 
"I hereby give to the San Francisco Food Bank, located at 900 Pennsylvania Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94107, [cash amount, percentage of net estate or description of property] to be used for its general purposes."

Consult with your legal counsel to help you with your will or trust. To help you get started, download a free estate planning kit (pdf).

Please contact Catherine Homsey at (415) 282-1900, ext. 247 for more information.

 

Donating appreciated securities (stocks, bonds or mutual funds held by you for more than one year) can allow you to reduce or avoid more capital gains taxes and receive a federal income tax charitable deduction.

 

Designating the Food Bank as the beneficiary of your securities is another way to donate. This type of gift can be especially appealing if you are holding shares that have appreciated significantly in value but yield a low dividend.

 

If you have excess life insurance, you may enjoy tax benefits by designating the Food Bank as the beneficiary of an existing life insurance policy. In order to deduct premium payments as charitable deductions, the donor must name the Food Bank as both owner and beneficiary of the policy.

At a person's demise, qualified retirement plan assets may be subjected to both estate tax and deferred income tax, which combined can exceed 80 percent. You can designate the San Francisco Food Bank as a tax-free beneficiary of the remainder of your IRA, Keogh, tax-sheltered annuity, qualified pension or profit-sharing plan. A charitable gift of insurance proceeds or the remainder of retirement plan assets is normally deductible from a donor's estate.

 

Under the Pension Plan Act of 2006, people over the age of 70½ can donate as much as $100,000 from their individual retirement accounts to charity tax-free. The original provision expired on December 31, 2007, but the recent Wall Street bailout bill has extended it for this year and 2009. The IRA distributions are tax-free—and can count toward the required minimum distribution that IRA holders who are 70½ and older must take from their accounts each year.

 

Please consider this site as an informational resource to help you in meeting your philanthropic goals. The information provided here is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered investment, legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice.