Leave a lasting legacy that will ripple through generations to come.
Access to open spaces provides ongoing healing benefits, helping us to feel inspired, rejuvenated, and motivated. The legacy you leave behind can ensure these opportunities last beyond your own years.
Even a modest-sized gift can make an enormous difference in keeping our outdoor spaces open and ensuring that our preserves and protected lands continue to be an integral part of our communities.
Personal property, retirement funds, insurance policies, and more are the tools of charitable gift planning. These tools allow you to express your beliefs and values, making an impact that can last for generations. Planned gifts can also provide you with valuable tax benefits and income benefits.
It’s easy to designate the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy as a recipient of your planned gift. Simply call us at 518-436-6346 to speak confidentially with our Development Director, Tara Tornello, at tara@mohawkhudson.org.
Including MHLC as a recipient of a percentage or specific dollar amount in your will is easy to do. Each individual situation is unique. We encourage you to share your final will provision with the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy to ensure that your wishes will be properly followed and recognized. It is especially important to talk with us if you wish to restrict the use of your bequest. The more narrowly you restrict its use, the greater the risk that the program you want to support won’t be as vital when we receive your gift in the future.
Learn more about possible gift opportunities and view sample language to share with you attorney:
You name MHLC as the beneficiary of a qualifying retirement plan through a beneficiary designation form, ensuring assets will not be included in your taxable estate. An extra step may be required to designate a 401(k). The taxes applied to your retirement plan assets may be different than you imagined—in fact, using retirement assets to make a donation while leaving other assets to your heirs often enables you to give more to your heirs. The remaining balance in your retirement plan makes a tax-wise gift, but don’t direct it to us through your will or trust—that will include the plan in your taxable estate. Instead, use your plan’s successor beneficiary form. After your lifetime, the residue of your plan passes to MHLC tax-free and to any other named heirs.
Benefits:
You may be able to escape both income AND estate taxes levied on the residue left in your retirement account. Since MHLC is a non-profit organization, we won’t pay income tax on the distribution, nor will the gift be subject to estate tax. The entire amount comes to us, and your heirs will benefit from a reduced estate tax burden. You can continue to take withdrawals during your lifetime. Change the beneficiary if your circumstances change. Support future conservation work.
Your gift costs you nothing now. You retain control of your assets during your lifetime. You can change your mind or modify your gift if circumstances change. Your gift can remain anonymous if you choose. Your gift may provide tax savings or help reduce the tax burden for your heirs.* Your distribution may be fully deductible for federal estate tax purposes and may even be exempt from state inheritance taxes. You can leave a gift in honor or memory of someone who inspired your love of nature. You will be remembered as someone whose legacy included protecting and conserving nature. Important Information: Please let us know in advance if you intend to bequeath real estate, a business interest, or other specialized property.
If you wish to name Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy in your estate plan, we should be named as: The Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, a nonprofit corporation, organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York, with a principal business address of 195 New Karner Rd, Albany, NY 12205.
Our tax identification number is: 14-1754157 | Date of incorporation: June 19, 1992.
Donating stocks or mutual funds to MHLC is a smart and simple way to help protect our community lands with benefits such as reducing taxes. It’s simple. You transfer appreciated securities to MHLC and MHLC sells the securities and uses the proceeds to fund critical conservation work. Benefits You receive credit and an immediate income tax deduction for the fair market value (average high and low prices on the day of the transfer). You avoid capital gains tax. Please note that the securities you use to make your gift must have been held by you for more than one year to be fully deductible. When you donate appreciated securities, you are able to deduct the gift as a charitable donation AND avoid capital gains tax at transfer.
Transfer Directions: Stock
First, contact us to let us know your gift is coming; this helps us identify your gift when it comes in. Then transfer your stock by either of two methods:
• Transfer by broker: Draft a letter to your broker providing instructions for the stock transfer.
• Mail certificate(s): Send the stock certificate(s) by certified mail to the Conservancy. In a separate envelope, mail the conservancy your signed stock power form and a dated letter that identifies the stock, states how your gift is to be used, and includes your signature exactly as it appears on the certificate.
Send them on the same day by certified mail to:
Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, ATTN: Mark King
195 New Karner Rd, Albany, NY 12205
If you are 70½ or older, you can make a tax-free distribution from your traditional or Roth IRA to MHLC. It’s an efficient way to support the causes that matter to you most. You can donate up to $100,000 each year without incurring income tax on your withdrawal. You direct distributions in the amount of your choosing from your traditional or Roth IRA to MHLC. This can be a one-time or recurring gift. The distributions go directly to MHLC and are not subject to federal income tax.
Learn more about required minimum distributions and making an IRA charitable rollover gift:
By giving a gift of land to create a public preserve, or leaving a gift as part of your estate planning, you are creating a legacy of a heathier Capital Region community. Our mission cannot be accomplished without these generous gifts of land, which ensure we all have open spaces to enjoy for generations to come. If you are interested in giving a gift of land or planning to give a gift of land as part of your estate, please contact MHLC’s Associate Director, Sarah Walsh, at sarah@mohawkhudson.org.
