MAKING A GIFT OF CASH, APPRECIATED SECURITIES, REAL ESTATE OR PERSONAL PROPERTY
What are the benefits of a cash gift?
The simplest and most frequent gift to the Medical School, or another department, program or unit of the U-M Health System is a cash gift, which can be in the form of a personal check, credit card authorization, money order or bank draft, made payable to the University of Michigan.
A cash gift can be used immediately to further the goals of medicine at Michigan and provides an immediate charitable deduction against your federal, and in some cases, state income taxes.
A substantial cash gift can also be made with pledge payments over a period as long as five years.
Are there other ways to make an outright gift?
Yes. Gifts of appreciated securities, real estate and certain items of personal property, such as valuable works of art or items related to the history of medicine, are often welcomed.
Stocks, bonds or mutual fund shares that have increased in value over time can be an excellent means of benefiting an institution about which you care deeply. By making such a gift, you gain an income tax deduction based on the current value of the appreciated securities and you avoid capital gains taxes.
If you are interested in making a gift of real estate or tangible personal property, a member of the Office of Medical Development would be happy to discuss such a gift with you and to provide you with the information you and your financial advisor would need to make such a gift.
How will my gift be used?
An unrestricted expendable gift provides the most flexibility, allowing your gift to be used to meet the most pressing need of the moment, such as new laboratory equipment or new program development. You can also restrict the use of your expendable gift, specifying how you would like it to be used.
A gift of endowment can be used to support a scholarship, fellowship, professorship or research fund already in place or to establish a new one, which you may wish to name for yourself or in honor of another person. In this instance, the gift itself is placed in the University’s Endowment Fund, which over the past decade has provided to the University a rate of return exceeding 10 percent, increasing in real value about 3.5 percent over that period of time (after distributions and inflation were deducted.) Annual distributions to endowment accounts at the University average about five percent, as set by the Regents.
An endowed research fund established with a gift of $75,000, for instance, would provide an annual distribution to a researcher of about $3,750 the first year, and increasing amounts as the fund grew in value. Such moneys can make a dramatic difference for a young researcher who needs “seed funds” for a new project, technical support, special equipment or supplies.
A full professorship can be endowed with a gift of $2 million or more. Such endowments greatly strengthen Michigan’s ability to compete successfully against its high-ranking peer institutions for leading teachers and researchers in the field of medicine and biomedical research.
Does the University accept matching gifts from employers?
Yes. If you are employed by a company which matches its employees’ gifts to charitable institutions, you may be able to increase the size of your gift substantially in this way. While you will not receive an income tax deduction for your employer’s part of the gift, you will receive recognition from the University for the full amount of the gift.