Many donors choose to leave charitable assets upon their deaths.  After making sure that your loved ones have been cared for, you can use a variety of assets to leave your legacy, either to add to an already existing fund at the Foundation or to establish your own named fund. 

Bequests
You can establish or add to a named grantmaking fund in your will or trust through a bequest. Such charitable gifts are deductible for estate tax purposes.  Options include:

• Residuary bequest – the remainder of your estate’s value after all other bequests, plus taxes and expenses have been paid
• Percentage bequest – you specify a percentage of your entire estate that will come to the Community Foundation
• Pecuniary bequest – you can designate a specific dollar amount of your bequest
• Contingent bequest – the bequest will only come to the Community Foundation upon a certain condition, such as when a named beneficiary does not survive you or your spouse

Retirement plan assets
A retirement plan is one of the best types of assets to transfer to a charity because it produces taxable income. Most assets an heir inherits are free from income tax. However, an heir will pay income tax on disbursements from a decedent's retirement plan such as a profit sharing plan, Section 401(k) plan or IRA. If you are going to make a charitable bequest, it is usually better to transfer the taxable assets subject to income tax to a tax-exempt charity — such as a community foundation — and to transfer the assets not subject to income tax to heirs.

Plans that are appropriate for gifting include:

• Profit-sharing or other defined benefit contribution plan
• 401(k) plans, which allow an employee to reduce taxable compensation
• 403(b) plans for employees of nonprofit organizations
• Traditional individual retirement accounts, or “IRA”s

Note that a Roth IRA is subject to different tax treatment than a traditional IRA, and therefore is typically not advantageous as a charitable asset. 

Life insurance beneficiaries
You can use life insurance as a gift asset in two primary ways: by irrevocably designating the Community Foundation as the owner and beneficiary of a policy, or by naming the Community Foundation as the beneficiary of a policy.