Planned gifts provide an opportunity for donors to contribute to the Center without having to draw on financial resources immediately.

Please contact director@dalc-online.org or call 603-742-1030 to express your interest and discuss these options.

In 2009 the Board of Directors adopted Gift Acceptance Policies and Guidelines and Investment and Spending Polices.

The simplest options are outlined below. Donors will want to consult with their financial/tax advisers to determine eligibility and which options best fit the donors’ needs and circumstances.

Life Insurance

Policies no longer needed for family or business purposes may be transferred to the Center. Transferring ownership enables the donor to claim a charitable deduction equal to the surrender value.

• It allows the Center to acknowledge and recognize the donor now
• It allows the donor to make a larger gift than would normally be possible from current income
• It puts to good use assets that are becoming less important to the donor

To make this gift deductible, it must be irrevocable. The Center may be named the owner of the policy or a beneficiary in a specified amount. If the gift is of a paid-up (there are no additional premiums to be paid) life insurance policy, the donor receives an immediate income tax deduction generally equal to the sum of premiums paid. If the donor is still paying premiums, deductions will still be very advantageous.
Another important use of life insurance is wealth replacement. When a donor makes a substantial gift to the Center, s/he is often reducing the amount of assets that will go to heirs. Increasingly, donors are using some of their tax savings (from their charitable tax deduction) to purchase insurance policies on their own lives and make their heirs the owners and beneficiaries of that policy. This wealth replacement strategy can permit both a larger gift and a larger legacy to heirs. Life insurance proceeds are non-taxable to heirs.
Gifts of Stock
Stocks that have increased in value and would therefore be subject to capital gains taxes if they were sold also provide an excellent gift opportunity. The donor receives a tax credit for the donation and the Center is able to sell the stock at current value without a tax liability.

Retirement Plans

Retirement Funds seem to be the best kept secret in gift planning. Gifts from these assets often make better financial sense to the donor than gifts of cash, securities or property. In the years since IRAs and 401(k)s and other personal retirement plans were established, many people have deposited significant funds which have grown rapidly as the financial markets have set records. Your retirement funds may well be a very significant part of your estate now. In your estate, those funds will be taxed more heavily than others, and it may make good sense to commit those to the Center instead of other assets. In some estates, retirement funds can face taxes as high as 80%, leaving little for heirs.
Here are some ways you can contribute:

Designated at Death

The Center may be named to receive all or a portion of a company pension plan, an IRA, a 401(k), or a Keogh Plan. Because retirement plan assets are often subject to extremely high estate taxes and the income is fully taxable when received by an individual beneficiary, retirement plans make excellent charitable gifts and may be a better use of these assets.
By naming the Center as the beneficiary of a retirement plan the donor maintains control over the assets, but at death the plan passes to the Center free of both estate and income taxes for the use you have specified at the Center. When creating your estate plan you may wish to consider leaving heirs other assets, such as cash and securities that are not as highly taxed and naming the Center as the beneficiary of your plan.

Charitable Bequests (donations included in your will)

Bequests allow a donor to make a gift in three different ways: specific bequest, percentage bequest or residuary bequest. The gift may be unrestricted, restricted, in honor/memory of, or as an endowed gift.
A bequest to the Center may be expressed in these words in a will:
Sample Wording

The Helen Phipps Heritage Society

Helen Phipps was one of the first two women ever to be elected to the Dover City Council. In 1970, Helen became the Director of Dover Adult Basic Education and went on to found the Dover Adult Learning Center. Helen passed away at the age of 83 on August 6, 2010.

In honor of Helen’s dedication and commitment to adult education, the Dover Adult Learning Center Board of Directors established the Helen Phipps Heritage Society to allow supporters to make a leadership gift to continue her legacy.

Recognition of your leadership gift:

Membership in the Helen Phipps Heritage Society begins with a planned giving donation. Give a specific dollar amount or a percentage of the proceeds of your:

will
insurance policy
trust
annuity
IRA
retirement plan
The benefits of making a leadership gift include:

Invitations to special recognition events
Your name listed in the Center’s newsletter
Personalized service to respond to your questions and comments concerning programs, events, services, and benefits
The knowledge that you have made a real difference in the lives of those served by DALC
How your participation helps:

Gifts will be used for future capital improvements such as classroom equipment, educational software, tools and technology.
Making a contribution is easy. DALC has volunteer advisors that can work with you or your agents. Build on our successful history of investing and responsible stewardship of funds as evidenced through the “Come Help Us Grow” campaign.

Contact Executive Director Deanna Strand at 603-742-1030.

Memories of Helen Phipps

This summer we said good-bye to the founder, driving force and inspiration of the Dover Adult Learning Center, Helen Phipps, who died at the age of 82. Debbie Tasker, Helen’s successor and now GED administrator for the State of New Hampshire offered these memories.

It’s the 1970’s. Picture a petite dynamo with light brown hair. She seems to be everywhere in Dover, leaping out of her VW “bug” to attend a church meeting, serving on the City Council, beaming at her children’s concerts, hiring teachers for the new Adult Basic Education program, arranging with volunteers to host a pot luck dinner to honor 150 adult education students and their families, encouraging a student who doubts he can ever learn to read, speaking to service clubs to raise awareness of adult literacy, baking and decorating gingerbread Christmas cookies for the children of all her friends, raising scholarship funds to enable needy high school students to go on to college.

Or, perhaps, picture the year that Helen became the first woman chair of the Dover School Board or the year she led the Joint Building Committee to successfully complete the current Dover High School. Or the year she decided that adult education needed to be backed by a permanent non-profit organization. Or the year her family established their farm and she baked lasagna with her own home-made cottage cheese. Or the year she performed the miracle of convincing city officials to purchase an old church building as a home for the Adult Learning Center.

Maybe it’s a later year when Helen is overcoming one of the many health challenges that would daunt a lesser person. Now she’s walking more slowly, leaning on a cane, but she’s still as enthusiastic and dynamic as ever—fierce in her determination that education should be available to all, generous in her praise and support for employees, positive in her encouragement for students.

Helen Phipps, the petite dynamo, was truly a giant among us, and we are fortunate that DALC was created by her persistence and graced by her indomitable spirit.