The Campaign for Grinnell College

Continue Supporting Our Work After Your Lifetime

Beneficiary Designations

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Passionate about supporting Grinnell College with our mission even after your lifetime? It's not only possible, it's easy to do with a beneficiary designation. Just name the College as a beneficiary to receive assets such as retirement plans and life insurance policies after you're gone. You simply fill out a form that is entirely separate from your will—which makes this approach an easy way to give.

Not only is it an easy way to give, but it's also flexible—you aren't locked into the choices you make today. You can review and adjust beneficiary designations anytime you want.

Check Out This Potential Scenario

Older couple smilingRobert and Carol treasure the financial help they've been able to give their children and the College over the years. Now that their kids are grown, Robert and Carol changed their estate plan so it could work harder for the people and causes they love. The couple updated their will to leave stocks and real estate to their kids. And they left us a $75,000 IRA to be transferred after their death. Because the College is tax-exempt, all $75,000 will help support our mission.

If Robert and Carol had left the IRA to their children, approximately $18,000* would have gone to pay federal income taxes—leaving only $57,000 for their family's use. Robert and Carol are happy knowing they are making the most of their hard-earned money thanks to their updated estate plan.

*Based on an assumption of a 24 percent marginal income tax bracket.

Young Alumna Makes Planned Gift to Grinnell Before Her 10th Reunion

Kelsey PickenIt didn't quite seem right to Kelsey Picken '10 that she was having conversations with people about making planned gifts without having set up one herself.

As senior director of planned giving for the City of Hope, a comprehensive cancer center in Duarte, California, Picken is aware of all different types of planned giving vehicles. She recently chose to make Grinnell College one of the beneficiaries of her IRA. At age 32, she is one of the youngest alums to ever set up an unrestricted bequest.

While Picken says it's understandable that people in their 30s tend to be more focused on careers and family than planned giving to an institution, it doesn't hurt for anyone to consider making plans.

"The path I went down for my gift might not be for everyone, but it's worth having plans in place in case something happens unexpectedly," she says. "IRA designations are the easiest things to do. An attorney isn't needed."

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Alumna Sets Up Planned Gift to Encourage Students to Consider Public Service Careers

Linda NealAs an activist with a passion for politics and public service herself, Linda Neal '67 has established a planned gift that will provide Grinnell students direct exposure to people whose lives have been devoted to public service. She has set up a bequest for the Neal Public Service Fund to benefit Grinnell's Program in Practical Political Education.

It was the Program in Practical Political Education that initially lured Neal to Grinnell. The PPPE facilitated student involvement in politics in the 1960s. PPPE was revived in 2018 and revised goals for the program include promoting interest in public service at Grinnell and enhancing the free flow of ideas important for strengthening U.S. democracy.

"I want Grinnell students to see that public servants should be seen as our heroes, and that public service is as admirable a career as academia, law, or medicine," she says. "By bringing people with life experience on campus, students can examine, explore, and understand that public service is a satisfying and productive career."

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See How It Works

Learn How to Fund It

You can name us beneficiary of the following assets:

Make Sure You Have a Plan for All Your Assets.Download our FREE Personal Estate Planning Kit

Next Steps

  1. Contact Buddy Boulton at 866-850-1846 or PG@grinnell.edu for additional information on beneficiary designations and how they can help support the College with our mission.
  2. Talk to your financial or legal advisor to learn which assets will or will not trigger taxable income when paid to a beneficiary.
  3. If you name the College in your plans, please use our legal name and federal tax ID.

Legal Name: Trustees of Grinnell College
Address: 733 Broad Street, Grinnell IA 50112
Federal Tax ID Number: 42-0680387

A charitable bequest is one or two sentences in your will or living trust that leave to Grinnell College a specific item, an amount of money, a gift contingent upon certain events or a percentage of your estate.

an individual or organization designated to receive benefits or funds under a will or other contract, such as an insurance policy, trust or retirement plan

"I give to Grinnell College, a nonprofit corporation currently located at 733 Broad Street, Grinnell IA 50112, or its successor thereto, ______________ [written amount or percentage of the estate or description of property] for its unrestricted use and purpose."

able to be changed or cancelled

A revocable living trust is set up during your lifetime and can be revoked at any time before death. They allow assets held in the trust to pass directly to beneficiaries without probate court proceedings and can also reduce federal estate taxes.

cannot be changed or cancelled

tax on gifts generally paid by the person making the gift rather than the recipient

the original value of an asset, such as stock, before its appreciation or depreciation

the growth in value of an asset like stock or real estate since the original purchase

the price a willing buyer and willing seller can agree on

The person receiving the gift annuity payments.

the part of an estate left after debts, taxes and specific bequests have been paid

a written and properly witnessed legal change to a will

the person named in a will to manage the estate, collect the property, pay any debt, and distribute property according to the will

A donor advised fund is an account that you set up but which is managed by a nonprofit organization. You contribute to the account, which grows tax-free. You can recommend how much (and how often) you want to distribute money from that fund to the College or other charities. You cannot direct the gifts.

An endowed gift can create a new endowment or add to an existing endowment. The principal of the endowment is invested and a portion of the principal’s earnings are used each year to support our mission.

Tax on the growth in value of an asset—such as real estate or stock—since its original purchase.

Securities, real estate, or any other property having a fair market value greater than its original purchase price.

Real estate can be a personal residence, vacation home, timeshare property, farm, commercial property, or undeveloped land.

A charitable remainder trust provides you or other named individuals income each year for life or a period not exceeding 20 years from assets you give to the trust you create.

You give assets to a trust that pays our organization set payments for a number of years, which you choose. The longer the length of time, the better the potential tax savings to you. When the term is up, the remaining trust assets go to you, your family or other beneficiaries you select. This is an excellent way to transfer property to family members at a minimal cost.

You fund this type of trust with cash or appreciated assets—and may qualify for a federal income tax charitable deduction when you itemize. You can also make additional gifts; each one also qualifies for a tax deduction. The trust pays you, each year, a variable amount based on a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the trust assets. When the trust terminates, the remaining principal goes to the College as a lump sum.

You fund this trust with cash or appreciated assets—and may qualify for a federal income tax charitable deduction when you itemize. Each year the trust pays you or another named individual the same dollar amount you choose at the start. When the trust terminates, the remaining principal goes to the College as a lump sum.

A beneficiary designation clearly identifies how specific assets will be distributed after your death.

A charitable gift annuity involves a simple contract between you and the College where you agree to make a gift to the College and we, in return, agree to pay you (and someone else, if you choose) a fixed amount each year for the rest of your life.
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