For Individuals

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Whether you’re a community member, or you’re representing a business, nonprofit, or employer, United Way of Central Oregon provides an opportunity for you to strengthen our community.

We help individuals give back to our Central Oregon community.

As a longstanding, nimble local nonprofit, we rapidly evolved our priorities to be immediately responsive to new community needs formed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, we focused our grantmaking on community needs formed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We modified our grantmaking process to award funds to address immediate emergency needs created by the pandemic and then to help the nonprofits who serve our community adapt the way they operate. Learn more about how we helped with the fallout of COVID-19 in Central Oregon.

In 2021, we returned to our customary annual grantmaking cycle and focused on supporting local and regional agencies as they help our community members adapt, recover, and stabilize. Learn more about our current Community Impact Partners here.

And DONATE to our Community Impact efforts today.

GET PERSONALLY INVOLVED – DONATE!

Individual community members can make gifts of:

Cash, Check, or Card
Gifts on the Creative Side
Gifts for the Future
Gifts of Assets
Gifts that Provide Income

DONATE TODAY

Cash, Check, or Card

Donate Online

Click here to donate today

Donate by Mail

Mail your gift check to: PO Box 5969, Bend, OR 97708

Donate by Phone

Call 541.389.6507

Donor Privacy Policy

We respect the privacy of our donors. We retain donor information in a secure database where it is used to verify transactions, print receipts, thank supporters for their contributions, keep supporters informed, and solicit future donations.

We do not keep credit card information in our donor database. We provide information to our Board members and staff on a confidential, need-to-know basis. We do not share or trade our donors’ names or personal information with others, and we do not sell that information.

We release donor information to other agencies if they are receiving funds specifically designated by the donor, unless the donor has directed us otherwise.

We recognize our leadership level donors in our leadership registry annually, unless they request otherwise. We do not send mailings to our donors on behalf of others.

GIFTS ON THE CREATIVE SIDE

Endowment

Endowment development is critical to our mission. When you make a gift to United Way of Central Oregon’s endowment fund, you are leaving a legacy that will strengthen our community, improve lives, and make an everlasting impact. Gifts to our endowment fund is invested separately from our annual fundraising funds. We’ve partnered with the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) to grow our endowment.

With OCF’s stewardship and long-term investment program, our endowment fund will be maintained in perpetuity to provide a stable stream of income that will support our work and mission. With this partnership, you have the opportunity to designate a gift to this permanent fund to ensure future funding for our work.

You can support our endowment fund through bequests, life insurance, retirement funds, a charitable gift annuity (CGA), a charitable remainder trust (CRT), a charitable lead trust, and/or a donor advised fund.

Donor Advised Funds (DAFs)

A DAF will allow you to make a charitable gift over multiple years, but to receive an immediate tax deduction for that tax year. This allows you to realize tax benefits when they make the most sense for you, then distributing gifts to nonprofits as desired over time. Donors deposit funds into a DAF at one point in time, and receive a tax benefit in that tax year, and then can recommend grants from the fund over multiple tax years to United Way of Central Oregon and nonprofit(s) of your choice. 

Here’s how it works: To create your DAF, you can make an irrevocable contribution of personal assets (cash, stock, real estate, etc.), and immediately receive the maximum allowable tax deduction. Your gift is placed in a DAF account where it can be invested with tax-free growth. You get to name your DAF account, advisors, and any successors or charitable beneficiaries. Any time after that, you can recommend grants from your account to nonprofits of your choice.

You can contribute to your DAF as frequently as you choose. Many donors choose to bundle deposits into DAFs to maximize their tax benefit in any given year. A DAF is an efficient and cost-effective way to donate without the hassles and expense of a private foundation. And, they are a wonderful way to engage your family in philanthropy and community involvement. Oregon Community Foundation is one entity that can help you set up your DAF and manage it for you.

Gifts for the Future

Planned giving enables you to arrange charitable gifts through estate planning in ways that maximize your objectives while minimizing the after-tax cost.

Bequests

After first providing for the needs of family and friends, you may choose to give to United Way of Central Oregon. A bequest, made through a donor’s will, living trust, or beneficiary designation form for a retirement plan or insurance policy, is the most direct form of a planned gift. Bequests are easy to establish, and the estate receives a tax deduction for 100% of the value of the gift. We can work with you and OCF to create a bequest.

Bequests can include:

a percentage of your estate,
a specific amount,
property (like stocks, bonds, or real estate),
part or all of your estate residue (what is left of your estate after all beneficiaries have received their bequests), or
a blended bequest (a specific amount plus a percentage or all of the residue).

Life Insurance

Life insurance policies that are no longer needed may have a significant cash value and can make an excellent charitable gift. You can also name United Way of Central Oregon as a contingent (backup) beneficiary should your primary beneficiary predecease you.

Retirement Plans

You can continue to make a difference in our community by making United Way of Central Oregon a full or partial beneficiary of your IRA, 401(k), or other qualified retirement plan. Using retirement assets to make your donation while leaving other assets to your beneficiaries may enable you to give more to your beneficiaries.

Gifts of Assets

IRA Rollovers

The IRA Rollover allows donors who are 70½ or older to transfer a gift directly from their IRA to United Way. An IRA Rollover gift is a tax-exempt distribution and reduces your taxable income. Qualifying individuals can make charitable gifts using pre-tax IRA assets. You can transfer a gift directly from your IRA to United Way of Central Oregon without first having to recognize the distribution as income.

Once you turn 70½, you must start taking required minimum distributions out of your traditional IRA. Normally these distributions count as taxable income. However, you can alternatively make gifts from your IRA directly to a nonprofit, and these charitable rollovers will count as part of your required minimum distribution, but they are not taxable income! The alternative would be taking a distribution, paying income taxes, and then using after tax assets to make a charitable gift.

All or part of an IRA’s annual required minimum distribution can be met through an IRA Rollover gift. The maximum you can rollover to any charity in any year is $100,000. But you can make multiple smaller gifts to different charities. The check from your IRA MUST be made out to the nonprofit of your choice and not to you. Please contact your financial institution holding your IRA to ask about their charitable rollover procedure.

Securities

By giving securities (stocks, bonds, or mutual funds) instead of cash, you may be able to benefit from tax savings that would allow you to give a larger gift at the same cost to you. Giving noncash assets can result in especially favorable tax treatment. If you have owned securities for more than one year that have appreciated in value, you may owe a substantial capital gains tax if you sell them. However, using these assets to fund charitable gifts, you will bypass capital gains tax while enjoying a federal income tax deduction for the full value of the securities. This may allow you to make larger gifts than you may have thought possible.

Securities that have dropped in value can also be useful for charitable gifts. If you sell these securities, then make a gift of the cash proceeds, you may be able to claim tax benefits for both the capital loss and the charitable gift. There are even tax benefit options for stocks that are rising in value but have not peaked, for securities that are producing small dividends, and for giving a portion while selling the rest. Your advisors can help you do this in a way that will maximize your capital gains and income tax savings. By giving securities, you can maximize the size of your charitable gifts, conserve cash for other purposes, and enjoy multiple tax benefits.

Gifts that Provide Income

We also offer our donors the option of creating a gift that creates stable income either for the donor and/or their beneficiaries OR for the United Way of Central Oregon.

Life Income Gifts

Life income gifts are made during a donor’s lifetime and provide income for life for the donor and/or other beneficiary, and obtain an income or estate tax benefit.

There are two main types of life income gifts:

a charitable gift annuity (CGA), and
a charitable remainder trust (CRT).

OCF staff works with our staff and donors to create CRTs and CGAs. Assets remaining at the termination of the trust or gift annuity may be directed to a permanent endowment at The Oregon Community Foundation to support United Way of Central Oregon.

Charitable Gift Annuities

You can sent up a CGA at age 55 and receive annuities at age 60. The minimum gift is $25,000 and the gift must be funded with cash or securities. The remainder of the gift will fund United Way of Central Oregon’s existing endowment, or can be used to create a new endowment if there are sufficient funds.

Charitable Remainder Trusts

You can be a CRT beneficiary at age 55 or older. The percentage payout is between 5% and 7%. The gift can be funded through cash, securities, and/or other assets, like real estate. For OCF to serve as trustee, 50% of the charitable remainder value must be designated to United Way of Central Oregon to add to our existing endowment. The remaining 50% may be distributed directly to United Way or a new endowed fund may be created if there are sufficient funds.

A Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust (CRAT) is very similar to a CRT, but is difficult to fund with other assets like real estate because there is an immediate payment obligation.

Term Income Gifts

Charitable Lead Trusts

A charitable lead trust can be thought of as the inverse of a charitable remainder trust. Here’s the difference:

A charitable lead trust is an irrevocable trust that provides financial support to designated nonprofit(s) over the term of the trust, with the remaining assets going back to the donor, family members, or other beneficiaries at the end of the term.
In contrast, a charitable remainder trust provides a stream of income to the donor or family for the term of the trust before the remaining assets are transferred to designated nonprofit(s).

A charitable lead trust can be created during your lifetime or in your will. It is often employed for estate or tax-planning purposes because it can potentially provide tax benefits, such as an income tax deduction or estate or gift tax savings on assets ultimately passed to the individuals designated as remainder beneficiaries.

And, the trust distributes regular, reliable payments to benefit designated nonprofit(s) during the term of the trust.

We are happy to assist you and your advisors.

United Way of Central Oregon does not provide tax or legal advice; please consult your tax professionals if you are contemplating a charitable gift.