When you volunteer, you give more than your time. You help your favorite organization accomplish work it might otherwise have to pay someone to do.

Perhaps you prepare meals, organize fundraisers, mentor students, manage club records, or coordinate community projects. Those hours make a difference, and when you are no longer there, the need for that work continues.

A thoughtfully planned charitable gift could help pay someone to carry that work forward. Life insurance or an annuity may offer a way to support the cause you love while keeping your family’s needs in mind.

Your Time Helps Today. Your Gift Can Help Tomorrow.

Members of Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, and other service organizations understand how much work happens behind the scenes. (Of course, I am partial to Kiwanis, since they are near and dear to my heart for service)

Someone orders supplies, organizes volunteers, handles paperwork, and makes sure the project gets done.

Your donated time helps the organization stretch its budget. A future financial gift could help cover a program coordinator’s salary, administrative assistance, or temporary staffing when volunteers are unavailable.

For example, a $10,000 gift might help pay someone to coordinate a youth program or support a community project. How much work it funds depends on wages, payroll expenses, and the organization’s needs.

Your gift does not have to fund an entire position to make a meaningful difference.

Consider a Separate Life Insurance Policy for Your Charity

One approach is to purchase a life insurance policy specifically for your charitable goal.

If you want to leave $10,000, or another amount that fits your wishes and budget, you could apply for a policy in that amount and designate the qualified charity as its sole beneficiary.

As agent, I recommend to keep the insurance intended for your family separate.

This gives each policy a clear purpose: one helps protect your loved ones, while the other dedicates its payable death benefit to your chosen cause. Your charitable gift does not depend on relatives donating part of their inheritance.

Coverage amounts, policy minimums, underwriting requirements, and premiums vary by insurer. Permanent coverage, including whole life insurance, may fit a lifelong giving goal when its premiums and guarantees meet your needs. Term coverage may expire before the intended gift becomes payable.

Put Your Wishes Clearly in Writing

Naming the charity directly as beneficiary generally allows the payable proceeds to go to the organization rather than through your estate.

Family disagreement alone generally does not override a valid beneficiary designation. However, a sole beneficiary designation cannot prevent every court challenge. A legitimate legal claim can delay or affect payment.

Proper ownership, funding, and beneficiary paperwork help support your intentions. Have your estate planning attorney review applicable spousal rights or other legal considerations, and keep the insurer’s confirmation with your important documents.

The policy must remain in force. Outstanding loans and other contract provisions can reduce the amount the charity receives.

Make Sure Someone Knows How to Start the Claim

Creating the gift is one step. Making sure someone knows how to help the charity receive it is another.

Tell a trusted family member or the person handling your affairs that you have a policy designated for a 501(c)(3) organization. Put that information in writing with your important documents.

Include the carrier’s name, policy number, agent’s contact information, and the charity’s legal name and contact person. Let the charity know about the policy, too, so its authorized representative can contact the insurer and complete the required claim paperwork.

A death-benefit claim typically requires proof of death, often a certified death certificate. Your family can ask the funeral home to help obtain the copies needed and coordinate delivery with the carrier or the charity’s representative.

If your charitable policy is with a different carrier from your family’s policies, make sure that additional carrier is notified. Ask about its death-certificate requirements and arrange an additional certified copy if needed. Notifying the company paying your family’s benefits does not notify an unrelated insurer.

Having separate family and charitable policies with the same carrier may simplify coordination. When reporting the death, identify both policy numbers and ask the company to confirm the claim requirements for each. Depending on its procedures, it may be able to use the same death certificate for both policies, but the charity may still need separate beneficiary paperwork.

Leave clear instructions so someone can help carry out your wishes without having to discover the policy on their own.

Make Sure You Name the Right Organization

Your local service club and its charitable foundation may be separate legal entities with different tax classifications.

Before completing the beneficiary form, ask the organization for its:

• Exact legal name.

• Employer identification number.

• Current mailing address.

• Instructions for accepting a life insurance gift.

Confirm that the intended recipient is the qualified 501(c)(3) organization you want to support.

Kiwanians might explore their district’s charitable foundation or the Kiwanis Children’s Fund. Lions and Rotary members can contact their intended charitable foundation. Churches, food pantries, and scholarship organizations may also welcome planned gifts.

The IRS offers a tool to check eligibility to receive deductible charitable contributions. Some qualifying churches are not listed, so an absent listing does not automatically mean a church is ineligible.

An Annuity May Also Support Your Legacy

Certain annuity contracts allow you to name a charity as beneficiary of remaining contract value or a death benefit.

This may let you use the annuity for your retirement goals while directing a portion, or all, of any payable remainder to your favorite cause.

Review the contract carefully. Withdrawals, fees, and income elections affect what remains. Some lifetime income options provide no benefit after death.

An insurance company annuity with a charitable beneficiary is different from a charitable gift annuity offered by a nonprofit. Ask your agent to explain how the contract’s benefits fit your goals.

Include any annuity intended for charity in your written instructions, along with its carrier and contract number.

Tell the Organization What You Hope to Continue

Would you like your gift to support scholarships, youth leadership, meals, or the work you currently perform as a volunteer?

Talk with the organization before making a restricted gift. An accepted written gift agreement can help document its purpose and address what happens if a program changes or closes.

You can also leave the gift unrestricted, allowing the organization to respond to future needs.

Simply naming a charity as beneficiary generally does not create a current income tax deduction. Donating ownership of a policy is a different arrangement with separate tax and control considerations.

Keep Your Service Going

A charitable legacy should fit alongside your retirement income, emergency savings, care needs, and responsibilities to loved ones.

You can care for your family and plan a meaningful gift to your community. A separate charitable policy offers one way to give that intention a clear place in your plan.

The hours you volunteer today matter. A gift you arrange now—and clear instructions for claiming it—could help someone continue that service tomorrow.

Want to explore a life insurance policy dedicated to your favorite charity?

Contact Karen Burkholder at Lone Star Legacy Insurance.

Call: 469-425-3221
Email: [email protected]

Or message me the word LEGACY to start the conversation.

Insurance options depend on eligibility and contract terms. Consult your tax professional and estate planning attorney about your individual circumstances.

Helpful Resources

• IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search

• IRS Charitable Contributions Guidance

• Kiwanis Children’s Fund Estate Giving

• Texas Life Insurance Beneficiary Law

• NAIC Guidance for Life Insurance Beneficiaries