Campaign Update

Year-End Charitable Giving to Creighton

Steve Scholer, JD’79
Director of Estate & Trust Services

The following guidelines are offered to assist you as you contemplate making a year-end gift to Creighton.

Remember, only gifts completed by Dec. 31 can be used to reduce your taxes due on April 15, 2010. If you mail your year-end gift in the form of a check to Creighton, your gift is complete as of the date of the postmark. If you use a credit card, your gift is complete when the transaction is authorized by your bank. If you mail your signed charge authorization, make sure your letter is postmarked no later than Dec. 14. After that date, please contact the Office of Development at 800.334.8794, or make your gift online at www.creighton.edu/development.

Gifts of stocks and mutual funds offer benefits to you and to the University. Gifts of securities owned for more than one year entitle you to deduct fair market value without having to report the capital gains you would have realized if you had sold the investment. If stock you own has decreased in value from your original purchase price, you may want to consider selling it and gifting the net proceeds. That way, you may be able to claim both a loss on the stock and a charitable contribution deduction.

For securities electronically transferred from your account to Creighton’s, your gift is complete and valued on the date it reaches the University’s account. Gifts of stock certificates hand-delivered to Creighton are complete the day they are delivered; stock certificates and necessary stock powers sent by mail are complete as of the date of the postmark. If you ask a transfer agent to have shares you own re-registered in Creighton’s name, the gift is not complete until the reregistration is finalized on the corporation’s records. Because Creighton may be required to open a new account with the fund, gifts of mutual fund shares may take several weeks to transfer, so please plan ahead and allow extra time.

2009 is the final year for IRA owners age 70 or older to meet their charitable goals by making gifts directly from IRAs.

If you are interested in converting cash, securities or land into a life-income arrangement with Creighton, please call or write for a personalized proposal. You can contact us at 800.334.8794, giftplanning@creighton.edu or visit http://giftplanning.creighton.edu.