Leaving a legacy of access to justice

When you write a check or give cash to NH Campaign for Legal Services or another charitable organization, you are making what’s sometimes referred to as a “current gift.” In addition to making current gifts, many donors also arrange to make future gifts to us, often referred to as “planned giving” because, well, they require planning!

What are planned gifts?

Planned gifts are an important way for you to help the Campaign ensure that our programs stay strong for generations to come. There are many reasons you might decide to make a future gift from your estate to support legal aid in New Hampshire. Here are a few:

• You want to leave a legacy to the community after your death so that your commitment to the Campaign continues beyond your lifetime.
• You want to ensure that your family members can experience the joy of giving after you’re gone by participating in giving a portion of your assets to the Campaign, as a charity your whole family has cared about and can continue to care about for generations.
• You want to make the most of tax benefits associated with setting up a future gift to charity, including avoiding capital gains tax, or securing an income tax deduction up front.
• You own certain assets that are not suitable for leaving to family members but would make ideal gifts to the Campaign.

Is a planned gift right for me?

Talk with your estate planning attorney and your financial advisors. Your advisors will know which of your assets could be deployed into a tax-effective planned gift to our organization’s endowment that also achieves your goals for leaving money to your family after your death.

How can I plan my gift?

You’ve decided to make a planned gift to support civil legal aid! Thank you!  Now what?

Here are four steps for success:

Talk with our team about what you have in mind and what areas of our mission you would like to support. We can discuss several factors that will inform the best type of planned gift to achieve your charitable wishes.

Talk with your legal and tax advisors to determine the best assets to deploy toward your planned gift. Selecting the assets will depend on the total dollar amount you’d like to give, as well as your tax situation (both income and estate tax). The assets you give will also depend on the ownership structure of the assets and other family and estate planning factors.

After you’ve talked with your legal and tax advisors, we’ll set up a time to discuss your planned gift as a group – you, your advisors, and our team. Together, we can evaluate the options, and you will make the decision about the type of planned gift, whether you’ll retain an income stream, and the provisions you want to include to ensure that our organization uses the gift as you intend.

In your planning, we should be named as: NH Campaign for Legal Services, with principal business address of 117 North State Street, Concord, NH 03301. Our tax identification number is: 02-0300897

For more information about these and other giving options, please email Campaign Director Sarah Palermo at spalermo@nh-cls.org or call (603) 369-6650.