Leave a Wild Legacy

Naming the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida in your estate plans is a wonderful way to leave a lasting, living legacy for conservation and youth outdoor education. You can designate an amount or a percentage of your estate. It has no impact on your current lifestyle and can be updated at any time.

Most of our planned giving supporters make unrestricted gifts that allow us to use their funds for our most pressing needs. We are happy, however, to discuss any specific wishes you may have for your gift.

To get started on your legacy, use FreeWill. FreeWill is a free, online will-writing tool that guides you through the process of creating your will and legacy in 20 minutes or less. The resource is completely free to use, no matter what. Start your will today.

If you have already included a gift to the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida in your will or trust, fill out this form to let us know. We would love to thank you for your generosity.

To make an unrestricted bequest, consider using the following language in your estate plan:

“I bequeath $_________ or _____ percent of my residuary estate to the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, organized and existing under the laws of the State of Florida (Federal tax identification number 59-3277808), for its ongoing conservation and educational purposes.”  [If you’d like to restrict your bequest for a specific purpose, please contact the Foundation to discuss.]

Individuals making gifts via their estate plans are vital to our long-term effectiveness and are honored as members of the Foundation’s Conservation Legacy Society. If you plan to include the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida in your estate plans or already have done so, please let us know! Your information will be kept confidential unless you wish to be listed as a member of the Conservation Legacy Society.

The Foundation always encourages donors to consult with their financial and tax advisors before making a planned gift.

You can protect nature and save on taxes with a gift of stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. Contact Foundation Chief Operating Officer Mr. Will Bradford at 850 404-6129 or email him at [email protected] for instructions.

As of December 2015, the IRA charitable rollover was signed into permanent law, allowing taxpayers age 70-1/2 and older to transfer up to $100,000 annually from their IRA accounts directly to the charities of their choice without first having to recognize the distribution as income.

A Donor-Advised Fund gives you a convenient, versatile way to make charitable contributions when and how you want. You can make an initial donation — and claim the maximum tax benefits allowed by law – then take your time to decide which nonprofit organizations or activities you want to support. It’s a great choice if you want to spread your giving over time and among a variety of causes. The minimum gift to establish a Donor-Advised Fund is $50,000.

A Field-of-Interest Endowment is a permanent fund you create to fund specific conservation areas of focus – Florida rare plants, marine mammals, coral reefs, control of invasive species, outdoor youth education, etc. Your endowment ensures your particular conservation interests are supported without limiting the funding to any one organization. The minimum gift to establish a permanently endowed fund is $100,000.

Have a vacation house or condo you no longer use, or wonder what to do with your boat and your grandmother’s antiques and jewelry? Let us turn those assets into a gift for nature.

We can sell your real estate or tangible property and use the proceeds to fund our programs. You can also use tangible assets to create a trust, donor-advised fund or field-of-interest endowment.

You can also use life insurance assets to make a significant gift with little or no outright expense. The simplest method is to name the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida as a full, partial or contingent beneficiary of your policy. You retain full control of your policy and any value it accrues. To make this gift, contact your insurance company or agency to complete a new beneficiary designation form. You may also name our Foundation as the owner of a life insurance policy during your lifetime. You are eligible to receive an immediate income tax charitable deduction for a portion of the policy’s face value. Please contact us to discuss this type of gift in greater detail.

Some donors who have transferred significant assets to a charity use life insurance as a “wealth-replacement” strategy to support loved ones. If a donor gives the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida a $100,000 gift, for example, he or she may replace that value in their estate with a life insurance policy of equal value that names loved ones as beneficiaries.

We partner with the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay to provide our supporters with CGA and charitable remainder trust and charitable lead trust options. A CGA is a straightforward contract in which we agree to make fixed, lifetime income payments to you in exchange for your contribution to establish the annuity.

Because you can use appreciated stock as well as cash to fund your CGA, such annuities can be an excellent way to convert appreciated, low-yielding assets to a higher return while saving on a portion of the capital gains taxes. Anyone 70 or older may establish a charitable gift annuity with a minimum gift of $10,000, and you are entitled to a charitable tax deduction based on your age and the rate of return in the year your CGA is established.

A CRT is a tax-exempt irrevocable trust designed to reduce the taxable income of individuals. Once set up, either through a charity or via one’s financial advisors, remainder trusts disperse income to the donor or other named beneficiaries of the trust for a specified period of time, after which the remainder of the trust is donated to the designated charity.

A Charitable Lead Trust operates in the converse way. Once the lead trust is created, the designated charity(ies) receives the income from the trust for a specified period of time, after which the remainder of the trust passes to the named beneficiaries.