Creative giving to the Foundation Trust

Did you know there are many ways you can contribute to the Pendleton Foundation Trust? Your accountant or financial professional could be the key to accessing funds that you may like to contribute. Most everyone knows they can write a check as a charitable donation to the Trust, but have you thought of other ways? If you’re over 72 you are required to take Required Minimum Distributions from your Individual Retirement Account. Many times these distributions can be directly routed to PFT through your financial professional. If you have a portion of your nest egg that you could use to offset a tax bill, a good way to do it is to donate to the Foundation Trust. How about proceeds from a well performing portfolio outside of an IRA? You can pay capital gains on the profit, or donate some of the proceeds to the Pendleton Foundation Trust. You can even gift actual shares of stock that you own. Make an appointment with your financial professional today for a consultation on how you can lower your personal tax liability and help your community at the same time, through a creative charitable contribution to Pendleton Foundation Trust!

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Dudek’s Legacy Lives on Through Scholarships

Sometimes the simplest act of kindness can have the most profound long term impact on a community.

Clelan “Lee” Dudek was truly a renaissance man. Lee was a World War 2 Veteran, 1966 Las Vegas World Champion Gem Faceter, 1958 NRA 38 Caliber Short Range Champion, Private Airplane Pilot and much more. Regardless of what the project was, Lee was a person of many talents and knowledge. Lee and his wife Luella, built their dream home, refurbished his antique airplane to mint condition, grew his own vineyard, fashioned his own distillery and created his own unique wines and brandies. Lee and Lu often traveled to Baja Mexico to find gems, tile, and other materials to decorate their home. Lee truly could do it all.

Lee and Lu owned and operated Lee’s Refrigeration Company for over 50 years, serving countless businesses in the Pendleton area with expert service and instillation of commercial refrigeration and cooling systems. Lee had immense pride in doing any job right. Lee passed away at the age of 92, barely 3 months after losing his beloved wife. Lee and Lu decided that their worldly assets should be left to start a scholarship fund for young people in the Pendleton area. Lee was adamant that young people should learn a skill or trade. Lee often said “there was much satisfaction in learning how something worked and in how to fix it.”

Lee and Lu had no children, but that’s not the end of the story. The Dudek story will live on forever with the Dudek Scholarships through the Pendleton Foundation Trust. The Pendleton Foundation is honored to be the recipient of the Dudek’s generosity and foresight to provide several scholarships to Pendleton students that will make a lasting impact in our community.

One has to ask the question. What is our legacy, and how can we make a difference that will last forever?

Lee and Lu Dudek

How to: charitable donations via IRA

Shirley and Dale Moll

The Pendleton Foundation Trust has been serving and supporting our community for over ninety years. The Molls’ history in Pendleton started well before the creation of Pendleton Foundation Trust when Cornelius “Gus” Moll moved from Missouri to the Pendleton area with three rowdy boys in the late 1800s. The family was not only involved in ranching, but Gus became Mayor of Pendleton in the early 1900s and the Moll family ran the local UTOCO Oil Company for several years. Two generations later, Dale Moll was born and raised in Pendleton by one of Gus’s rowdy sons. After graduating from Pendleton High School, Dale attended Linfield College to study business, where he met a big city girl from Portland by the name of Shirley Stewart. Shortly after graduating from Linfield, Dale was drafted into the Army and served in Germany, but before he left on his tour of duty, he married Shirley; that was 63 years ago. Shirley was not able to join Dale during his active duty, but after he completed his tour with the Army, Shirley flew to Europe for their belated, but extended honeymoon.

Within days of returning to Pendleton, Dale was offered a job with the US Bank, to which he loyally devoted himself for more than 30 years. In the meantime, Shirley was busy running the household, raising two children, working several jobs, and giving her time to host civic organizations.

During these years in Pendleton, the Molls formed a strong group of friends which they continue to enjoy today. Shirley’s philosophy is to take care of family first, then church and community, and then everything else falls into place. Following this philosophy, the Molls have generously donated not only their time and talents to our community, but they have donated financially as well. By taking advantage of qualified charitable distributions from their IRA accounts, they have made more tax-free dollars available to the local charities that they support. Shirley says she likes to contribute to the Pendleton Foundation Trust because she knows that the PFT Board will do the hard work of investigating how to best use those funds. She is confident that the donations they make to the Pendleton Foundation Trust are well cared for. She said,

“It’s an honor to give to the Foundation; it’s the right thing to do.”

When you give to charity, everyone wins

Changes in income tax laws have reduced charitable giving. Most of us will not itemize deductions on our federal tax returns this year and therefore will not receive a federal tax benefit for our charitable contributions. Because of this it is projected that charitable giving will be down 4.6%.

It is important to continue to give to charities. Your donations make a difference in the lives of others and the community that you live in. Charitable giving increases your sense of gratitude and wellbeing. By knowing the best tax strategies and utilizing tax advantaged approaches, donors can maximize the benefit to the charity without increasing their cost. Smarter giving benefits all of us.

There are several ways that you can increase the tax benefits of charitable giving. For those donors over the age of 70 1⁄2, who have traditional IRA accounts, a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is a very good strategy. You contribute directly from your traditional IRA which qualifies for your required minimum distribution and you are not taxed on the withdrawal from your IRA. In effect, you are allowed a deduction for the charitable contribution without having to itemize your deductions.

Another good way to make a charitable contribution is to contribute property that has increased in value. This property could be real estate or shares of stock. The donor receives a deduction (within certain limits) for the full fair market value of the property without having to recognize the gain that would be taxable if the property were to be sold. Also, Donor Advised Funds (DAF) are becoming more popular. You can set-up an irrevocable charitable trust; donate to the fund; receive a current deduction on your tax return and choose to disburse the funds to a charity of your choice in future years. This works well where you could use a large deduction this year, but you want to spread out your charitable giving over several years. By making a large donation to your DAF in the first year, you could exceed the standard deduction and therefore receive a tax benefit that you would not receive if you made direct donations over several years.

There are a host of other strategies that work well in specific situations. A charitable gift annuity, a charitable remainder trust or a charitable lead trust may be a better fit in your circumstances. You can see that there are many ways to maneuver through the minefields of taxes and charitable giving. Oregon has lower standard deduction limits so many individuals will receive state tax benefits even though they may not receive federal tax benefits. Don’t let the new tax laws discourage you from giving to your favorite charities. Talk with your tax advisors to devise a giving plan that best fits your situation and remember, through charitable giving, we all win.