Planned Giving

What Is a Legacy Gift?
A legacy gift to Knox College has three essential qualities:

1. A legacy gift is created through the use of certain estate or financial planning documents, such as a will, trust or annuity agreement.
2. The donor can receive benefits, such as lifetime income, from the gift if it is made during the donor's lifetime.
3. The donor has the opportunity to state within the documentation what the ultimate use of the gift to Knox will be.

A legacy gift made during your lifetime is called a current gift, while a legacy gift made to Knox upon your death is called a deferred or testamentary gift. A current gift can be made through a trust, an annuity agreement or a gift fund description; provides donors with certain tax and income benefits during their lifetime; and establishes a future gift to the College. A testamentary gift can be made through the use of a will or a trust and creates a gift to the College through the donor's estate.

Why Make a Legacy Gift?
There are substantial financial benefits to consider when making a legacy gift. Unlike a regular charitable contribution, a legacy gift has the potential to provide substantial lifetime income to the donor or to someone else of the donor's choosing, such as a spouse or a parent. A legacy gift can also be used as part of a donor's overall estate plan to protect assets and ensure that heirs or other beneficiaries receive the current or future benefits of the donor's estate assets. And as with other charitable gifts, there is the potential for considerable income, capital gains and estate tax deductions.

The Knox College Legacy
Aside from the financial benefits, there is something else to consider in making a legacy gift to Knox College. When you make a legacy gift, you touch the future of Knox and help ensure that Knox College's legacy of providing a world-class liberal arts education to students continues for generations to come. Think of your legacy gift as a Pumphandle with future Knox students!

Your Next Steps
Your legacy gift begins with a step in the right direction. Are you . . .

1. Ready to study your options? Download Legacy Preceptorial (PDF) to learn more about the types of legacy gifts available to you.
2. Ready to get organized? Download our Guide to Planning Your Will and Trust (PDF).
3. Ready to start planning your legacy gift? Visit our legacy gift planning Web site.

Professional Advisors
If you are a professional advisor to donors, visit our gift law Web site to receive access to gift law updates and research, private letter rulings and charitable deduction calculations.

Old Main Society
The Old Main Society is the organization through which the College honors individuals who have expressed their intention to make a legacy gift to Knox College. Named for Old Main, the symbolic heart of the Knox campus since 1857, the Society serves to recognize members who are investing in the future of Knox through the use of lifetime and estate gifts. If you have included Knox College in your estate or financial plans but have not yet activated your membership to the Old Main Society, you may do so by completing an Estate Gift Intention Form (PDF) and returning it to the Office of Advancement.