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Outright Gift

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An outright gift is the simplest of all gifts to make and provides Commonwealth with the greatest and most immediate support. Most donors make outright gifts by writing a check, but outright gifts of other kinds of assets are certainly possible.

A outright gift could be right for you if:

You have cash or other assets that you want to donate
You want the largest possible tax deduction for your gift
You would like to make a gift to Commonwealth that has the greatest immediate impact

How It Works

You transfer cash, publicly-traded securities, or other assets directly to Commonwealth.
Receive an income tax deduction.

Your Benefits

Save taxes
Gain the satisfaction of making a gift that will provide immediate support to Commonwealth

How Your Gift Helps

Your planned gift helps make the Commonwealth experience possible—today and far into the future. Among many things, your support will help us:

Serve curious students who want to understand their world deeply—and work to improve it

Provide rigorous classes taught by caring faculty that challenge students to do their best work

Increase access to a Commonwealth education for students from communities too often ignored

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What is an outright gift?

An outright gift is any gift where you transfer all ownership of an asset to Commonwealth and retain no rights to the asset whatsoever. The most common way for donors to make an outright gift is to write a check payable to the charity.

Gift provides immediate support

Unlike some other gift arrangements, your outright gift will provide resources that Commonwealth can put to immediate use. If you prefer to restrict our use of your gift in any way, please contact us so that we can be sure that we carry out your wishes.

Assets to consider

Cash - This is the simplest way to make an outright gift. Just write a check payable to Commonwealth. You may deduct the full amount of your donation up to 50% of your adjust gross income. You may carry forward all unused deduction for up to five additional years.

Publicly-traded securities- It is easy to make an outright gift using publicly-traded securities. The amount of your deduction will depend on how long you have held your securities.

If you have held your securities for more than 12 months, you will be able to deduct their full value up to 30% of your adjusted gross income. If you have held your securities for 12 months or less, you will be able to deduct either their current full value or what you paid for them, whichever is less, up to 50% of your adjusted gross income. Either way, you may carry forward all unused deduction for up to five additional years.

If your securities have decreased in value while you have owned them, you will save more taxes if you sell the securities first and then donate the proceeds.

Other assets - It is possible to give us assets other than cash or publicly-traded securities. Please contact us to discuss these possibilities if you are considering such an asset for a gift.

Example

Susan Spencer would like to make a $15,000 gift to Commonwealth. Susan could write a check for this amount and earn a nice charitable deduction. Alternatively, she will be able to save even more in taxes by giving stock worth $15,000 instead. After reviewing her plans with her investment advisor, Susan decides to give shares of Widget Corporation worth $15,000. She paid just $500 for these shares when she bought them over 20 years ago.

Benefits

Susan will earn an income tax charitable deduction of $15,000, which will save her $4,200 (28% tax).
She will avoid tax on $14,500 capital gain, which will save her an additional $2,175 (15% tax).
Susan will be able to invest the cash that she otherwise would have given away.
Susan will gain the satisfaction of making a $15,000 gift to Commonwealth.

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