Planned Giving

Planned giving allows you to leave a literary legacy and helps ensure Seattle Arts & Lectures’ ability to create transformative experiences for readers and writers of future generations. If SAL is important to you, your planned gift will help support the programs you love, beyond your lifetime.

If you have already made planned a gift to SAL, share this news by emailing bbrock@lectures.org, or by completing our Literacy Legacy Circle Form. We would be honored to recognize you as a member of Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Literary Legacy Circle. Members will receive invitations to special events and programs, and recognition in our Annual Report, unless they prefer to remain anonymous.

Common planned and legacy gifts include:

Wills and Bequests

The most common way to make a planned gift is through a will or bequest. By naming Seattle Arts & Lectures in your will and making a bequest, you can significantly reduce the tax burden of your estate.

Charitable Remainder Trusts

Charitable remainder trusts allow financial and estate-planning flexibility. They are similar to other types of trusts, except that Seattle Arts & Lectures receives the remainder interest. You entrust the property, specifying how trust income and the remainder interest will be distributed. A trust created during life takes advantage of income, capital gains, and estate-tax savings. A trust effective at the end of the donor’s life is especially useful for accepting retirement-fund assets.

Retirement Plans

Retirement plans are often subject to both income and estate taxes upon the death of a participant. By naming Seattle Arts & Lectures as a beneficiary of the balance of qualified retirement plans, your estate can achieve substantial tax savings.

Life Insurance

By naming Seattle Arts & Lectures as a primary or secondary beneficiary of a life insurance policy, your estate will be allowed an estate-tax charitable deduction.

Questions – please contact Development Director Betsey Brock at bbrock@lectures.org, or call 206.621.2230 x17