Legacy
Planning
Create a Plan That
Reflects Your Values
A charitable legacy is one of the most meaningful ways to ensure your values live on. It’s a chance to make a lasting difference for the causes closest to your heart.
Since 1929, The Dallas Foundation has been working closely with individuals and families to design and fulfill their commitments to charitable causes. We offer a range of giving options designed to align with your estate planning and honor your values and wishes.
There are a number of ways to name the Foundation as a beneficiary of your estate:
Bequest through a will or trust
Beneficiary of a retirement account
Beneficiary of a life insurance plan
Private foundation termination
Charitable Remainder Trusts and other vehicles
“The reality is, you’re not going to live forever, but you can give forever through planned giving.“
Ruben and Alina Esquivel
Here are some questions to consider:
Do you want to respond to the most pressing needs of Dallas?
If so, your solution is a gift to the Community Impact Fund of the Foundation, which serves as our general endowment and supports a variety of causes for the betterment of our community.
Do you want to support specific issues, like arts, education, entrepreneurship, or the environment?
If so, an estate gift that creates a “field-of-interest fund” at the Foundation will meet your goals. Your fund can be an endowment, meaning it lasts forever, or it can be structured to be spent down over a period of time. And it can be customized to support the issues that you care most about.
Do you have specific organizations that you wish to support?
We can create a “designated fund” in your name that makes annual grants to named organizations, either in perpetuity or for a period of time. Many donors choose this plan because it allows for annual gifts made during their lifetime to continue after death.
Do you want to empower family or friends to be philanthropic through a donor advised fund (DAF)?
A donor advised fund creates a charitable legacy that allows family or friends to recommend grants to charity. Your estate can fund an existing DAF with the Foundation, or it can create a new DAF with advisors and successor advisors that you choose.
Do you want to do a combination of these?
No problem. Your estate gift can be used to fund more than one of the options listed above. For example: A portion of the gift is used to create a field-of-interest fund, in the name of the donor, that makes annual grants to organizations battling homelessness in Dallas. The Foundation will identify the most effective organizations each year to receive those grants. Part of the gift can be used to create a designated fund, in the name of the donor, that makes an annual grant to the donor’s college alma mater. Those grants will be made until the fund is exhausted. The remainder will be added to the donor’s existing DAF at the Foundation, and her three adult children will act as advisors to the fund with the ability to recommend grants to their favorite charities.
Next Steps
Once you determine what you want your estate gift to accomplish, you will name The Dallas Foundation in your estate documents. For assistance with legacy gifts, please contact Kelsey Picken, Senior Director of Legacy Giving.
Kelsey Picken, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Legacy Giving
kpicken@dallasfoundation.org