Ideas for Giving and Moving Forward in 2020

Mount St. Mary's Seminary & School of Theology continues to move forward with its important work. In the midst of what sometimes feels like a chaotic world, many of our friends and supporters are looking forward to the future when they can enjoy community with friends and resume their regular activities. In response to the current situation, Congress recently enacted several tax law changes. MTSM has created this page to offer resources to help you with your tax planning and to offer some ideas for you to consider if you are thinking about making a gift in support of our mission:

1. CARES ACT

This recently passed law includes several charitable tax provisions to encourage giving. These include:

• A new deduction for charitable donors who do not itemize when filing their tax returns. If you do not itemize but make a cash gift to charity, you will be allowed to take a special tax deduction, up to $300 (per taxpayer unit), to reduce your tax liability.
• An increase in the deduction limit up to 100% of a donor's annual income for cash gifts (previously the deduction was capped at 60% of annual income). If you make a cash gift, you will be able to deduct more this year.

2. Donor Advised Funds

If you have a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) and wish to help us this year, you can make a gift from your DAF to support our work without affecting your personal financial security.

3. Charitable Gift Annuity

If you are concerned about your financial security given the ups and downs of the stock market, you may want to consider making a gift to fund a charitable gift annuity. You might be surprised by the tax benefits. You can exchange your low-performing stock, CDs or cash for guaranteed, lifetime fixed payments. If you make a gift of an appreciated asset, you will not pay capital gains when you fund the annuity. You may also benefit from a tax deduction this year and a portion of your future payments could be tax-free.

4. Restricted Gifts

If you have already made a gift to support our cause and your gift is restricted to a particular project or purpose, we would like to ask you to consider contacting us to remove your gift restrictions. This is an easy way for you to help us meet our current, most pressing needs, which will allow us to continue to support our seminarians, other students, faculty and staff and meet ongoing expenses during this time.

Removing a gift restriction will give us the flexibility to apply your gift to meet critical needs without requiring an additional gift from you.

If you are interested in learning more about any of these ideas, please contact us. Please also let us know how we can help you during this time.