Gift Planning

A life income gift provides future support for Duke while also providing a tax deduction and payments to you or your loved ones. Payments can be fixed, variable or deferred.

Life income gifts serve a dual purpose: the gift provides future support for Duke while also providing a charitable income tax deduction and payments to you and/or your loved ones. Payments can be fixed, variable or deferred depending on your needs and preferences.

These gift vehicles can provide income benefits comparable to — or in some cases exceeding — those that might be earned in non-charitable vehicles. Many donors establish life income gifts with assets that are producing a small amount of income, such as cash or appreciated stocks that do not earn dividends.

Duke offers four basic types of life income gifts that will provide income to you or a loved one:

• Charitable gift annuity provides a fixed income for life in exchange for a gift of cash or stock of $10,000 or more.
• Charitable remainder unitrust is a trust that pays you and/or other recipients an income for life or designated years for a gift of $100,000 or more, and ultimately benefits your designated purpose at Duke.
• Charitable remainder annuity trust provides a fixed income like a charitable gift annuity but the tax treatment of the payout may be preferable for gifts of highly appreciated assets of $100,000 or more.

Make an Immediate Impact

Gifts of appreciated stocks, mutual funds or real estate held for more than one year may provide special tax advantages. Donate these assets outright or use them to establish a gift that pays you income.

Real estate, tangible property and securities can be turned into gifts with unique tax benefits. Your gift may be used to make an immediate impact at Duke University and support the programs you care about most.

• Gifts of securities, Gifts of securities, including appreciated stocks, bonds or mutual funds, may provide special tax advantages. By donating appreciated securities that you have owned for longer than one year, you receive the same income tax savings as you would by making a gift of cash or by check, but you also avoid tax on the capital gains built up in donated securities.
• Gifts of real estate may be a principal residence or vacation home, a farm, a commercial building, a subdivision lot, or unimproved land. The gift may be the entire property or a fractional interest in the property. 
• Gifts-in-kind may include personal property and other goods. If property has been held for more than a year and can be put to a use related to the "charitable purpose" of the university, you may be eligible for a deduction based on the asset’s full fair market value. Please note that some gifts require an appraisal or advance approval in order to be accepted.
• Charitable IRA rollover is a simple and effective way to make a gift to Duke. Eligible IRA owners can directly transfer funds from their individual retirement account to achieve multiple charitable purposes.

Download the Legacy Gift to Duke Health form

Right click and save the file to your desktop. You may then fill out the form, save, and either mail the form to the Duke Health Office of Gift Planning, 300 West Morgan Street, Suite 1200, Durham, NC 27701, or email the form to giftplanning-dukehealth@duke.edu. 

Gift Documentation

If you make a gift using any of these assets, you may need to complete an IRS Form 8283 for your personal income tax return.

Related Video

Grateful Alumnus Establishes Trust and Scholarship for MD/PhD Students
Fred Sanfilippo, MD, PhD, of Atlanta, who earned his medical degree at Duke and was a faculty member here as well, wanted to show his gratitude for his education and the life-saving care that his wife received here. The couple established a trust fund and scholarship to benefit MD/PhD students.