A charitable gift from your estate is a favored method of giving that enables you to achieve your financial goals and benefit Robin Hood. No other planned gift is as simple to make or as easy to change, should you ever need the assets during your lifetime.

A bequest may be right for you if:

  • You want to make a gift to Robin Hood.
  • You want the flexibility to change your mind.
  • You want continued access to your wealth, should you need it.
  • You are concerned about outliving your resources.

How Your Gift Helps

Your gift to Robin Hood shows your love of New York and helps us to …

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Remembering Robin Hood in your will is a wonderful way for you to make a lasting gift. Large or small, your bequest will make an important contribution to our long-term strength and our ability to carry on with our work.

But what if you don't have a will or living trust? You are not alone. Most Americans don’t have a will.

Without a will, the laws of your state will decide how your estate is divided. Typically, the probate court will divide your estate among your closest surviving family members according to a formula, and none of your estate can go to Robin Hood or any other charity. If you wish to have a say in how your estate is distributed, you must have a will or living trust. We encourage you to work with an experienced attorney to create a will or living trust that accomplishes your goals for your estate.

Ways You Can Define a Charitable Gift in Your Estate Plan

There are several ways that you can define the amount of your charitable gift to Robin Hood. They are:

  • A gift of a particular amount of money. For example, you give $25,000.
  • A gift of a specific item or items. For example, you give 1,000 shares of ABC Corporation.
  • A gift that will be made only if one or more conditions are met. For example, you give $25,000 provided we still offer a particular program or service and your spouse does not survive you.
  • A gift that will be made from the remainder of your estate once all other bequests, debts and taxes have been paid. For example, you give 25% of the remainder of your estate. Often called a "residuary bequest," this approach assures that your family will be taken care of before your estate makes a bequest to us.

Ways to Specify How We May Use Your Bequest

You have several options for telling Robin Hood how we may use your bequest once we receive it. They are:

  • An Unrestricted Bequest: This is a gift for our general work. This can be the most useful kind of gift because it allows us to put your gift to the best possible use at the time we receive it, and we can direct it toward one or more of our programmatic areas.
  • A Restricted Bequest: This is a gift for a specific use, such as a special project or program that is important to you. We’d advise you to consult with us before placing restrictions on your bequest to be sure we can carry out your wishes.
  • An Honorary Bequest: This is a gift made in honor of someone else. Any form of bequest can also be an honorary bequest. We would be pleased to recognize the people you wish to honor with your gift.

Make Sure We Can Carry Out Your Wishes

It is very important that your bequest be accurately and clearly described in your estate plan so that we can carry out your wishes as you intended. We would be pleased to consult with you regarding the terms of your bequest to ensure that we will be able to carry out your intentions. In order to avoid any lack of clarity about whether your bequest is to our organization or not, please be sure to include our full legal name and our federal tax identification number in your bequest:

Legal name: Robin Hood Foundation

Current address: 826 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10003

Tax identification number: 13-3441066

We are happy to provide you with sample bequest language to assist you and your attorney. You have complete flexibility to revise your bequest at any time if the circumstances arise. 

Tax Benefits

Because your bequest is revocable, you do not receive an income tax charitable deduction when you create it. Rather, your estate will receive an estate tax deduction for the full value of your bequest in the year it is made. Depending on a variety of factors, including the size of your estate and estate tax law at the time your estate is settled, this deduction may or may not save estate taxes.

Bequest Alternatives

In addition to adding bequest language to your will, here are a few other simple ways for you to make a bequest to us:

  • Make Robin Hood a designated beneficiary of a life insurance policy.
  • Make Robin Hood a designated beneficiary of an IRA or other retirement plan.
  • Make Robin Hood a designated beneficiary of savings bonds.
  • Instruct your bank to "pay on death" to Robin Hood some or all of a specific bank account.
  • Instruct your brokerage firm to "transfer on death" to Robin Hood some or all of a specific brokerage or other financial account.

Please let us know if you have included Robin Hood in your estate plans. We would welcome the opportunity to thank you for your thoughtful gift and to confirm that we can carry out your wishes.

Example

Natasha Warner, a widow, has been a supporter of Robin Hood for many years. Natasha is in good health now but does not want to be a financial burden to her children should she require expensive health care in the future.

Robin Hood is one of two charities to which she has been most dedicated. She would like to make a lasting gift to each of them in memory of her husband. After discussing her options with her estate planning adviser, she decides to create a residuary bequest in her will for each of her two favorite charities. Each charity will receive 50% of the remainder of her estate after all other obligations, such as taxes and bequests to her descendants, have been taken care of.

Benefits in this example:

  • Natasha’s assets will remain available to her should she need them.
  • The revocable nature of her gift will minimize the possibility that she will ever need financial help from her children.
  • If her estate is worth what she expects when it is settled, she will be able to provide generous legacy gifts to the two charities that have meant the most to her and her late husband.