Gift & Estate Planning at the Rainforest Alliance

This is a donation of all, or part of your estate transferred to the Rainforest Alliance after death, by will or trust. A charitable bequest may be included in your will when it is written or revised or through a separate document consisting of an amendment to your existing will. 

Suggested Language: 

“I hereby give, devise and bequeath ____ percent (___%) of my total estate, determined as of the date of my death, to the Rainforest Alliance, Inc., a not-for-profit organization incorporated by the laws of the State of New York, having as its principal address 298 Fifth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001, for its general charitable purposes.” 

The Rainforest Alliance receives all or part of your estate only under certain circumstances, if, for example another beneficiary predeceases the donor.

Income for today, a legacy for tomorrow. A charitable gift annuity with Rainforest Alliance is a gift that gives back. It can provide you and/or another beneficiary with stable income for life. You may also receive an immediate income tax deduction and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing your gift will help Rainforest Alliance protect our shared planet.

Contact Maria Wassum to learn more about your annuity options. 

A charitable lead trust transfers the income from trust assets to Rainforest Alliance for life or a term of years, after which the assets become available to you or your heirs. This allows you to immediately help support farmers and foresters and later leave your heirs assets at greatly reduced tax rates. 

You transfer assets to a trustee of your choice through a formal trust agreement. During the trust term, which could be your lifetime or a set term of years, the trustee invests the trust assets and makes annual payments to you and/or a loved one, based on the trust payout rate chosen by you. At your death or at the end of the trust term, the principal is distributed to the Rainforest Alliance. There are two kinds of charitable remainder trust, one that pays a fixed income (annuity trust) and one that pays a variable income (unitrust). 

You leave all or part of your retirement plan to the Rainforest Alliance, setting aside other assets for friends and family. All you need to do is contact the administrator of your retirement plan and inform them that you wish to give all or part of the remainder benefit in your retirement plan to the Rainforest Alliance and the assets in the plan would be removed from your taxable estate. 

If you own a life insurance policy that is no longer needed for the protection of your family or for other purposes, you may use it to make a gift to the Rainforest Alliance. The simplest way to give a life insurance policy to the Rainforest Alliance is to name the Rainforest Alliance as the owner and irrevocable beneficiary of the policy. 

A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is a direct transfer of funds from your IRA custodian, payable to Rainforest Alliance. QCDs can be counted toward satisfying your required minimum distributions (RMDs) for the year, as long as certain rules are met. 

In addition to the benefits of giving to charity, a QCD excludes the amount donated from taxable income, which is unlike regular withdrawals from an IRA. Keeping your taxable income lower may reduce the impact to certain tax credits and deductions, including Social Security and Medicare. You must be 70 ½ or older to be eligible to make a QCD. 

To donate securities held by your broker, please instruct the custodian to do the following: 

Specify, in writing, the securities they wish to donate to the Rainforest Alliance. Contact Christine Lanni at JP Morgan Securities, who will instruct them to transfer the securities to the Rainforest Alliance account: 

Account Details 
Rainforest Alliance, Inc. – Donations 
DTC Participant Number 902 
Credit Account Number – P72500 
FFC Account Number – E01595009 
Tax ID: 13377893 

Christine Lanni Details 
JPMorgan Private Bank 
christine.m.lanni@jpmorgan.com 
Direct line: 212-464-1506 
390 Madison Ave, Floor 24 
New York, NY 10017 

Contact the Rainforest Alliance with the name of the donor, the donor’s contact information, the value of the stock at the time of the transfer, the number of shares transferred, name of the stock, and expected date of transfer. We also request the custodian to send a confirmation letter or email of the transfer along with any relevant documentation to: 

Megan Friedfeld 
Rainforest Alliance 
development@ra.org 
212-677-1900, option 2 
298 Fifth Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10001