Planned giving offers strategies that allow you to be generous to the Radcliffe Institute and enhance your financial objectives at the same time. Planned gifts can:

• Provide a predictable income for life for you and/or others
• Generate a charitable tax deduction for a portion of your gift
• Avoid upfront capital gains taxes and save on gift/estate taxes
• Benefit from the expert investment management performance of Harvard Management Company at no cost to you
• Provide a much larger gift to the Radcliffe Institute than you might have thought possible

The Radcliffe Development Office uses the expertise of the Harvard University Office of Planned Giving. The Internet links below take you to the University’s Planned Giving Web site. Take some time to look through the Web site, which has extensive information that may be helpful to you, including a series of questions and answers and explanations of the various types of gifts.

Types of Gifts

Life income gifts include charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and pooled income funds. In many cases, life-income gifts can increase income (a portion of which is tax free), reduce income taxes, and avoid upfront capital gains taxes.

Bequests can be made through a will, trust, retirement assets such as an IRA, or life insurance. Many alumnae and friends find that a bequest is the easiest way to make a generous gift. Whatever estate plan you choose, please let the Institute know so you may be honored as a member of the Ann Radcliffe Society.

Gifts of real estate can create tax savings and income benefits for you and your family. A retained life estate allows you to gift your home and continue to live in your home for life.

A charitable lead trust can support the Radcliffe Institute and transfer assets to your children or grandchildren with greatly reduced (sometimes eliminated) gift or estate tax.

Contact Us

If you would like to receive information or speak to someone at the Radcliffe Institute about planned giving, please contact Diane Mercer, senior associate director of major gifts and planned giving, at 877-741-9517 or mercer@radcliffe.edu.

Alasdair Halliday, associate director of the Harvard University Office of Planned Giving, has worked with a number of Radcliffe alumnae to create planned gifts. He can help you determine which planned gift might be right for you based on your financial and philanthropic objectives. Alasdair can be reached at 800-446-1277 or alasdair_halliday@harvard.edu.

Ann Radcliffe Society

Alumnae and friends who have made planned gifts and estate plans for the Radcliffe Institute are welcomed as members of the Ann Radcliffe Society, a group of more than two hundred alumnae and friends.

The society is named for philanthropist Lady Ann Radcliffe Mowlson, who established the first endowed scholarship fund at Harvard in 1643. Her belief in the value of knowledge lives on more than three centuries later at the Institute that bears her name.