Your dreams. Your passion. Your legacy.
Your commitment to Jewish life is evident in everything you do—the responsibility you take, the care you give, and the values you teach. You can extend your commitment and inspire the next generation, and generations to come, through The Foundation. You can make a connection to the future, and ensure your support of Jewish Rochester and the State of Israel continues beyond your lifetime, into the next century, and beyond.
Your choice to create a continuum of commitment carries you forward into that future, declaring that as long as there are Jews who need help, you will be there to provide it.
Charitable Gift Options
Legacy gifts can be designed to match your personal circumstances through a variety of options, all of which are managed on your behalf by The Foundation. In planning your charitable gift, your legacy can provide:
- Unrestricted funds, giving your community the resources and flexibility to address issues, unanticipated needs, and opportunities now and in the future.
- Restricted or designated funds, aligning with your specific area of interest or organizations, programs, or needs that are most important to you.
Every option provides unique tax and estate planning advantages and is an expression of your lifelong care and involvement and your enduring commitment to Klal Yisrael (the Jewish People) and tikkun olam (repairing the world).
Planned Giving Options
Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowments (PACE) and Lion of Judah Endowments (LOJE)
These perpetual gifts to the Federation's Annual Campaign, ensure that the community’s operating needs are met in the future. In addition to helping the people of Rochester, if you make this gift during your lifetime, you will receive a charitable income tax deduction.
Charitable Bequests
Your will is an important element in your estate plan that enables you to protect the people you love, which can include Rochesterians. Create a lasting partnership with Federation and help ensure the future of the Jewish community. Your charitable bequest may include cash, securities, insurance, or property. Additionally, your taxable estate is reduced by the total amount of the gift while you retain use of the assets during your lifetime.
LIFE & LEGACY™
Administered by Federation, this program provides your legacy gifts to local participating synagogues and Jewish organizations of your choice, helping to fund program expenses and provide coaching, training, and incentive grants to ensure that legacy giving becomes integrated in the philanthropic culture of the community.
Alternatives to Private Foundations
Donor Advised Funds
These funds give you an opportunity for active family involvement in the process of allocating resources to meet needs in the Jewish and general communities, simplifying your charitable giving and maximizing tax savings. You can distribute the income and much of the principal, and can keep adding to the fund.
Restricted Funds
With this fund, you can create a permanent legacy, perpetuating your specific ideals for your community because the use of the fund is strictly limited to its designated purposes. By endowing an agency, program, or field of interest that is special to you, you assure its continued existence.
Supporting Foundations
These types of foundations are independent, nonprofit, charitable corporations providing a unique vehicle for family involvement in philanthropy. While it qualifies as a public charity with all attendant tax benefits, it has many of the advantages of a private foundation, including keeping it within your family’s control in perpetuity so that your wishes are carried out.
Life Income Plans
Charitable Remainder Trusts
This option is a way to create a legacy in your name while receiving income from the trust for life or a specified term of years. Charitable remainder trusts can be designed as either an Annuity Trust, with a fixed annual payment to you, or as a Unitrust, in which case you are paid a percentage of the value of the assets.
Charitable Lead Trusts
These trusts are both an income- and wealth-transfer vehicle, enabling you to transfer income-producing assets to the next generation at a significantly lower tax cost, while meeting your philanthropic objectives. After transferring your assets, the charitable lead trust provides fixed amount payments to your Federation endowment/foundation for a specific term of years or for your lifetime. Thereafter, the trust's principal passes on to your heirs or beneficiaries.
Note: The Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester does not provide legal advice. Donors are encouraged to seek independent tax and legal counsel.
Contact Us
Eric Brandt
Director, Planned Giving & Endowments
585.241.8625
