Unlock the potential of your giving

Photo: KGH Foundation

Mark and Anida Johnson chose to support healthcare at Kelowna General Hospital with an endowment fund set up with the KGH Foundation.

Unlock the potential of your giving

A future where your health care needs are fully met is a vision shared by many throughout the region. And it’s even better when those needs can be met close to home.

Care teams at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) have looked after Anida and Mark Johnson, and their friends and family throughout the years. The confidence of knowing they were in the best hands, without needing to travel for care, vividly shaped their review of their financial picture.

“We wanted to find a way to help as many people as possible,” shares Mark. “We chose to support health care because it touches all of us, from birth, until our last breath.”

Anida adds, “And with the changing demographics of our community and the growing population, we felt that supporting our local hospital would have the most significant impact.”

The couple chose to make their gift in perpetuity as it spoke to their fundamental desire to help as many people as possible, over the long term. They did this by setting up an endowment fund with the KGH Foundation.

What is an endowment fund?

“An endowment fund with the foundation can act like an investment account for our community’s health care,” explains Colleen Cowman, director of planned giving for the KGH Foundation. “Gifts are invested permanently or for a period of time and after a year, income earned is distributed to the area, or areas, of care that the donor wishes to support.”

Creating an endowment at the KGH Foundation is a powerful way to support health care innovation for the long term while ensuring future patients across the Interior have access to the best care possible.

The Johnsons knew that the KGH Foundation had successfully directed donor gifts to projects that have transformed health care delivery across the region. “We were interested in supporting cancer and cardiac care for the region,” says Anida. “And the team at the KGH Foundation helped us with these philanthropic goals.”

“An endowment fund can be established in several ways, including with an outright gift,” explains Colleen. “When your needs are more complex, blended giving allows you to follow a plan over time through gifts of cash or other assets made over time, and when you pass, with a gift that is the culmination of your wishes.”

The Johnson’s named endowment is a wonderful example of how giving can involve several donation types to achieve a philanthropic vision. The strategy they decided on was to begin with gifts made through their Donor Advised Fund (DAF). A DAF allows donors flexibility over the timing and granting of donations to charities like KGH Foundation. Through their DAF, the Johnsons combined giving now to establish their endowment, with a bequest to complete it in the future. Their legacy will truly be a forever gift for our community’s health, just as they envisioned.

Photo: Contributed

Donor-advised funds

A donor-advised fund (DAF) is like a charitable investment account that is set up for the sole purpose of supporting a donor’s charitable interests. A donor can start a DAF by giving an irrevocable gift to the DAF sponsor organization and receive an immediate tax deduction for that gift. Further donations can be made, with each new gift triggering a receipt for tax purposes.

Approved financial assets, like cash, securities, life insurance proceeds, and even bequests, may be donated to a DAF. In Canada, there are different kinds of DAF sponsor organizations, that manage the administration end of things: community foundations; foundations with the sole purpose of managing DAFs (often an arm of a financial institution); and charities such as faith-based organizations.

A DAF sponsor organization takes the non-binding recommendations of DAF donor(s) into account and will make grant disbursements to recipients like KGH Foundation, in accordance with their policies.

Giving changes everything

Your donations help the KGH Foundation fund breakthrough treatments and technologies, attract and retain top medical talent, and provide resources for the clinicians and staff at KGH to the important work required to keep world-class health care close to home.

For more information about the KGH Foundation, or to learn more about how you can unlock the potential of your giving and contribute to excellence in health care as part of your legacy, visit kghfoundation.com/ways-to-give. We look forward to helping you achieve your philanthropic wishes.

This article is written by or on behalf of the sponsoring client and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.