Charitable Gift Annuities

A Brooklyn College Foundation (BCF) charitable gift annuity is a gift arrangement that pays you a lifetime annuity (a fixed annual income) in exchange for your gift of cash, stocks, or mutual funds. Your annuity will be based on your age at the time you make your gift. The older you are, the greater your income. The gift annuity is the most popular life income gift arrangement because it is simple and absolutely secure. Here are a few reasons for the wide appeal of gift annuities:

• Before you make your gift, BCF will tell you the precise amount of your annuity. It will never change regardless of the ups and downs of the stock market or overall economic conditions.
  
  
• A charitable gift annuity is easy to create. The gift agreement is a simple contract between you and BCF. Your payments become one of our general obligations, backed by our assets.
  
  
• You may choose to have your payments made only to you for your lifetime. Or, you can choose to have payments made to you and another person. Many donors have payments made jointly to themselves and their spouse.
  
  
• After your death (or the death of the survivor of you and your spouse) the balance of your gift annuity will become available to BCF to support the historic mission of Brooklyn College - affordable high quality, higher education.

What are the tax benefits of a charitable gift annuity?

• You will be entitled to a current (one time) charitable income tax deduction in the year in which you complete your annuity gift. Your deduction will for a portion of the value of the assets you donate to account for the fact that BCF does not have use of your gift during your lifetime.
  
  
• If you fund your charitable gift annuity with appreciated securities you will avoid a portion of the capital gains which you would pay if you sold those securities without making a gift. You can contribute appreciated but low-yielding assets and put the entire amount of your gift to work earning income for you. Only a portion of your capital gain will be reportable, and the tax will be spread out over your actuarially projected lifetime.
  
  
• Your annuity payments will be subject to very favorable tax treatment. Part of your annuity will be taxed as ordinary income, part as long-term capital gain (if you donate stocks), and part will be treated as the tax-free return of principal. This increases the effective yield of a gift annuity and is not available on other types of life-income gifts.

Are there any other restrictions?

The minimum gift is $10,000, and annuitants must be at least 65 years old at the time they begin receiving their annuity. Donors who are under 65 years old should ask about our deferred gift annuity plan, under which you can make a gift now (if you are 55 or older) and receive a current tax deduction and defer the start of your annuity payments until you are 65 years old. In exchange for deferring your payments, you will receive a much higher annuity rate.

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