Clark Atlanta University

Ways to Give to CAU

Clark Atlanta University
Institutional Advancement and University Relations
314 Haven-Warren
(404) 880-8935; (404) 880-8395 (fax)

Ways to Give to CAU

Alumni, friends, and special donors can make gifts to CAU in multiple ways – an annual fund gift, an endowed gift, a capital gift or even a planned gift! Your gift to CAU provides enormous opportunities and benefits to students and the academic community. Your contribution also helps to enhance faculty development and strengthens the overall efforts toward making a difference in the experience of the CAU student. Please take a moment to preview the different vehicles available formaking your gift to CAU!

Cash/Credit Cards

The fastest way to give to CAU is to make a gift online. Or call us with your credit card information. You may also mail a check to CAU. Please include anote telling us how to direct your gift. This is one of the direct ways to support programs through the Annual Fund. Credit cards provide a flexible option for making a one-time contribution or multiple gifts toward a pledge.

Electronic Funds Transfer

For your convenience, CAU can also help you set up a monthly contribution to comedirectly from your bank account or credit card. Please fill out and return anelectronic funds transfer form. Please return the completed form with a voidedcheck or voided savings deposit slip for bank verification.

Matching Gifts

Many companies have programs that will partially or fully match your gift to CAU. If your company is eligible, request a matching fit form from your employer,and send it completed and signed with you gift. We will do the rest. The impact of your gift to CAU may be doubled or possibly tripled! Some companies also match gifts made by retirees and/or spouses. To find out if your employer has a matching gift program, simply click http://www.matchinggifts.com/cau/ or contact us and we will check for you.

Securities

o Securities Held In Your Brokerage Account

If your securities are held in a brokerage account, most brokers will require that you submit written instructions authorizing the transfer to CAU. After receiving the letter, your broker will be able to transfer the stocks directly to CAU’s account.

o Securities Held In Certificate Form

If you hold stock or bond certificates, you may transfer shares to CAU. You can notify us of your intention to transfer shares by mailing a completed stock power form and the certificates to CAU.

o Securities Held by A Transfer Agent

If you own securities that are held in book entry form by a transfer agent, please contact the transfer agent directly to learn about requirements for transferring gift stock to CAU.Transfer agents will not disclose the name of the donor to CAU, so please be sure to notify us of your intention to transfer securities.

Endowments

Endowed gifts provide CAU with a permanent source of income and provide for long-term institutional stability. The donations are added to the University Endowment Fund and are invested in perpetuity. The principal is not reduced and the interest earned is withdrawn annually and added to the University’s revenues. A portion of annual earnings will be reinvested in the endowment, so the University will have a perpetual source of funding that will increase over time as the endowment grows with the addition of new gifts. The income from the University Endowment Fund is purposed to underwrite essential program and operation costs, such as scholarships, which help to keep tuition increases in check.

Text To Give

1. Text keyword “CAU” to “50555”

2. You will receive a message asking “To Confirm your $10.00 donation to Clark Atlanta University, reply Yes.”

3. Type “YES” and press send.

4. You will receive a “Thanks! $10 charged to your phone bill for CAU donations” message.

5. You will then receive a message asking you to “Reply with YES for CAU news and info and click link to update contact info.”

6. Type “YES” and also click link to fill out contact information form in order to receive credit for your mobile donation

Planned Giving

Planned giving, sometimes referred to as gift planning, and may be defined as a method of supporting nonprofits and charities that enables philanthropic individuals or donors to make larger gifts than they could make from their income. While some planned gifts provide a life-long income to the donor, others use estate and tax planning techniques to provide for charity and other heirs in ways that maximize the gift and/or minimize its impact on the donor’s estate.

These arrangements can:

o Provide for you or your loved ones

o Entitle you to charitable income and/or gift or estate tax deductions

o Enable you to leave a legacy for CAU

1. Types of Planned Gifts:

a. Bequests and Estate Plan Gifts

You may make a bequestor gift through your estate by including a provision in your will or living trust, or by naming CAU as a beneficiary of a retirement plan or life insurance policy. The amount left to the university can be expressed as a dollar amount or as a percentage of the assets to be given.

b. Life Income Gifts

A life income gift allows you to give assets to CAU while providing yourself or others with income for a period of time before CAU is permitted to use your gift. You may make a life income gift by transferring securities, cash, or other property to CAU or a trustee. The university or trustee then manages the investment of the assets and pays an income to you, your designated beneficiaries, or both. Income payments continue for the beneficiaries’ lives or, in some cases, for a term of up to 20 years. There are several kinds of life income gifts available at CAU:

i. Charitable Gift Annuities – In exchange for an outright gift, CAU agrees to contract to pay a fixed amount each year to you and/or another beneficiary for life.

ii. Charitable Remainder Unitrusts – You establish a trust from which you and/or otherbeneficiaries receive variable annualpayments for life and/or a term of years. At the end of the term, the remainderof the trust assets go to CAU for the purposes you designate.

iii. Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts – You establish a trust from which you and/or other beneficiaries receive annual payments of a fixed dollar amount for life and/or term of years, after which the remainder of the trust assets pass to CAU for the purposes you designate.

iv. Pooled Income Funds – Your gift goes into an investment pool that functions like a mutual fund. Investment returns are paid to you and/or other beneficiaries for life, after which your gift is withdrawn and used to support your designated purpose at CAU.

c. Charitable Lead Trusts

A charitable lead trust makes an annual payment to CAU for a period of years, and at the end of the term, the remaining assets go to your children or other beneficiary.

d. Donor Advised Funds

A donor advised fund allows you tomake a tax-deductible gift to CAU to establish a fund today, and later advisethe university on how you would like the gift used. At least half of the giftmust be designated to CAU, and the rest may support other charities.

2. Assets to Give: Securities, Real Estate, and More

a. Cash

A gift of cash can be a simple way to provide an outright gift, make a bequest, or establish a life income gift, such as a charitable gift annuity, a charitable remainder annuity trust, or a charitable remainder uni trust. Cash gifts may allow you to use more of the charitable income tax deduction in any given year than gifts made with other types of assets.

b. Publicly Traded Securities

Publicly traded securities can be used to make an outright charitable gift. If you give appreciated securities that you have held longer than one year, you are entitled to a charitable deduction from your income tax for that full fair market value of the securities. You also may be able to defer or completely avoid capital gains tax on the securities, depending on the type of gift.Publicly traded securities can also be given to CAU to establish a life income gift or through one’s estate.

Publicly traded securities may be transferred electronically from a brokerage account to CAU.To ensure that your gift is properly credited, if your gift is to establish or add to a life income gift, please contact us before you make the gift.

c. Real Estate

Real estate can be given outright, through an estate or to fund some life income gifts such as the charitable remainder uni trust. Another option is to give CAU a remainder interest in your home while retaining the right to live in it for the rest of your life. You receive a current income tax charitable deduction for a portion of the property’s value.

d. Retirement Plans

A retirement plan can be a very tax-efficient and simple way of including the university in your estate plans. The best method is to name CAU as a primary or secondary beneficiary on your plan’s beneficiary designation form. The tax advantage stems from the fact that most retirement plans (other than Roth IRA’s) are subject to income taxes – and possibly estate taxes - if left to an individual beneficiary; however, a charity that is named as the beneficiary does not pay income or estate taxes on the distribution. Thus, the full value of what is distributed can be used by CAU as a gift from your estate, supporting the purpose you designate.

e. Life Insurance

You can make CAU the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, and your estate will receive a charitable deduction from estate taxes for that gift. You may also, under certain circumstances during your lifetime, make CAU the owner of a life insurance policy on your life, and receive an income tax charitable deduction for a portion of the face value of that policy.

For more information on making a gift to Clark Atlanta University, please contact us at:

Clark Atlanta University
Office of Institutional Advancement and University Relations
233 James P. Brawley Drive, S.W.
Atlanta, GA 30314

(404) 880-8710