A pooled income fund gift is an easy way to receive income for life and make a generous gift to The Foundation at the same time. A pooled income fund works like a mutual fund. Your gift is combined with the gifts of all other donors to the fund and invested together. You receive payments that reflect your share of the fund's net income.
  
A pooled income fund gift may be right for you if:

  • You want income payments for life.
  • You want the possibility of income growth.
  • You want to save income taxes or capital gains taxes.
  • You want to make a generous gift to The Foundation.
  • You are considering a gift amount of $1,000 or more.

 

 
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Gifts pooled together
A pooled income fund functions like a mutual fund.  When you make a gift to our pooled income fund, your gift is combined with the gifts of all other donors to the fund. All of these assets are invested together. Each donor is assigned units in the fund that reflect his or her share of the fund's total assets.

Payments based on fund income
Each year, the pooled income fund distributes all of its net income to its participants. The amount of income you receive is proportional to your share of the fund. For example, if you have a 1/10th share of the fund and the fund earns $1,000 of net income, the fund will pay you $100. Payments are made quarterly.

Your payments will vary in amount with the performance of the fund.  If the fund increases its net income rate, your payments will increase. If it decreases its net income rate, your payments will decrease.

Who can receive payments?
You decide who will get the payments from your pooled income fund gift. Usually, this will be you, or you and your spouse. You can, however, select any people to receive the payments. For example, you may wish to provide income for parents, a sibling, or a faithful employee. 

Tax benefits

  • Earn income tax charitable deduction.
  • Avoid capital gains tax.
  • May reduce estate taxes and probate costs.

You will receive a charitable income tax deduction in the year of your gift. If you cannot use the entire deduction that year, you may carry forward all of your unused deduction for up to five additional years. If you give appreciated securities to make your pooled income fund gift, you will not pay any capital gains tax when you make your gift. In addition, the fund will not pay any capital gains tax when it sells these assets. This means that the fund will be able to reinvest the full value of the assets you donate. By removing the gift assets from your estate, you may also reduce estate taxes and probate costs when your estate is settled.

Taxation of payments
The income you receive from our pooled income fund is fully taxable as ordinary income, just like interest income from a savings account. 

Remaining assets to The Foundation
When your pooled income fund gift ends, the value of your share of the fund will be removed from the fund and become available to support The Foundation.

Add funds anytime
You can add to our pooled income fund anytime. Additions earn an income tax deduction and will increase your future payments.

Assets to consider giving
The following assets make excellent sources for making a gift to our pooled income fund:

  • Cash that you currently have in a savings account, bank CD, money-market fund, or other safe but low-yielding investment.
  • Securities, especially highly-appreciated securities.

Example

Howard and Elizabeth Schlager are in their early 80s. They have been modest but faithful supporters of The Foundation, having given $5,000 each year for many years. They would like to make a larger commitment, but are concerned about maintaining their income.

The Schlager's own a $25,000 CD that will mature in a few weeks. They are pleased to discover that they can donate the $25,000 to our pooled income fund and continue to receive about the same amount of income from the pooled income fund as their CD was earning.

In addition to receiving income for life, the Schlagers will:

  • Receive an immediate income tax deduction of $14,626 for the value of their gift.
  • Make a generous legacy gift to The Foundation.