Ways of Giving

Thank you for considering a gift to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. There is no one best way to give. Rather, the best way to give depends on your life circumstances, your philanthropic vision, and your financial goals. The CA&ES development staff will work with you in confidence to discuss your philanthropic interests and to determine the gift method that best fits your situation. You can designate your gift as “current use” to help the college meet immediate, short-term goals, or for longer use, through creating or adding to an endowment.

If you would like to speak with a member of our development staff about supporting CA&ES, please call (530) 752-1639. Or e-mail us at supportcaes@caes.ucdavis.edu.

An Overview of Gift Methods

• Cash Gifts can be made by check, credit card, or wire transfer.
• Gifts of Securities include stocks, mutual funds, and bonds. They can provide relief from capital gains taxes.
• Gifts of Real Property include land, farms, personal residences, and rental and commercial property. They can eliminate property expenses and management and can provide relief from capital gains taxes.
• Gifts-in-Kind include tangible personal property – such as animals or books – that are donated for related educational purposes.
• Matching Gifts demonstrate an employer’s support for their employees’ philanthropic interests. Matching gifts can double or triple the impact of the gift.
• Pledges allow you to promise a gift and make payments over a period of time, enabling you to give more generously than what might be possible through a single contribution. Payments may be made in the form of cash, securities, credit card charges, or other types of assets. Typically, pledges may be paid over a period of up to five years in annual, semiannual, quarterly, or monthly installments, with payments to begin at your convenience.
• Planned Gifts often allow donors to make larger gifts than they may have thought possible. Planned gifts are gift arrangements that have specific tax advantages and often include lifetime income to a beneficiary or beneficiaries named by the donor. Visit the Planned Giving web site (plannedgiving.ucdavis.edu) for more information.
• Bequests are made by naming UC Davis as a beneficiary in your will or living trust. They often serve as the cornerstone of planned giving, and as the first step in creating a philanthropic legacy. A bequest for any amount can be made by anyone, at any age, with a will or trust.
• Life-income gifts make it possible to support UC Davis and also provide income for you (and others) at the same time. To establish a life-income gift, donors irrevocably transfer assets to a trust, a pooled fund, or to the university. Depending on the terms of the agreement, periodic payments are made to the donor and/or beneficiary for life or for a term of years. Ultimately, the assets are distributed to the campus to be used for the donor’s designated purpose.
• Charitable gift annuities provide fixed, partially tax-free payments. A gift annuity is a simple, contractual agreement between a donor and the university in which a donor transfers assets in exchange for the university’s promise to pay one or two annuitants payments for life.
• Charitable remainder trusts provide income to the beneficiary or beneficiaries for life or for a set number of years. A charitable reminder unitrust generates payments based on a fixed percentage of the annual value of the trust assets. The payout will vary from year to year. A charitable reminder annuity trust pays a set dollar amount annually based on the initial value of the trust assets. The payout remains constant each year.