Why donate to Blithewold?
Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum receives no local, state, or federal operating support, and must rely upon earned income and fundraising to survive. Your financial support is needed to ensure Blithewold’s Garden and Grounds remain beautiful and accessible for future generations. Your gift, no matter what size, is very important to us, and will help us continue to care and offer a place of beauty and inspiration for thousands of visitors each year.
Areas of Giving:
Annual Fund: Where the need is greatest
Your donation to the Annual Fund provides Blithewold, Inc., the stewards of the property, with immediately accessible dollars to fund annual garden maintenance, urgent preservation projects, and available funds to offset the costs associated with keeping Blithewold open to the public. By supporting the Annual Fund, you touch all components Blithewold including new plantings, tree acquisitions, horticultural displays, and educational outreach.
Tribute and Memorial Gift Program: A gift to honor and remember others
Blithewold’s tribute program is a wonderful way to honor family, friends or significant family events such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, or as an expression of sympathy. Your tax deductible gift ensures that the name(s) of the person(s) honored will become a permanent part of the Blithewold landscape with the planting of a tree or placement of a bench.
A personal acknowledgment is sent to the family or individual being honored, without reference to the size of the gift. Trees are a minimum of $300 and benches are $5,000. Each tree or bench is labeled with a permanent plaque and serves as lasting way to pay tribute.
Endowment Fund: Endowment is critical to sustainability
Blithewold is a rare survivor. In a region rich in historic sites open to the public, few large estates have managed to survive into the 21st century with their buildings, their collections, and most especially their gardens and grounds intact. Because of the high cost of caring for gardens, these are often the first features to be abandoned and/or neglected.
??A sizeable endowment fund is critical to the long term sustainability of Blithewold. The interest from an endowment fund provides reliable and consistent income for maintenance, structural and capital repairs, helps to cushion economic downturns, and fund the continuation and expansion of educational programs. Because the principal of the endowment is never used for expenditures, the fund is a permanent and growing resource.
If you have questions regarding the Endowment Fund please call Karen Binder at (401) 253-2707 ext. 12 or e-mail to: kbinder@blithewold.org
Planned Giving Opportunities: Leave a gift through your estate.
Blithewold itself was established through a planned gift, specifically a bequest. Marjorie Van Wickle Lyon made a gift to the future, a gift to perpetuate the place she and her family loved so dearly.
Planned giving may be simply defined as a technique of including charitable giving in your total financial plan. Many of Blithewold’s friends have chosen planned giving as a way to perpetuate their loyal support of the gardens and grounds beyond their lifetimes, while realizing benefits for themselves today. If you have already included Blithewold in your estate plans, let us thank you and welcome you into our Lyon Society.
Recognizing the highly private nature of such planning, all inquiries and communications are held in strictest confidence, and are without obligation.
Bequest Language: To name Blithewold in your will, you can include the following language:
I give (___ dollars / __ percentage / or the residue of my estate) to Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum, Blithewold, Inc. is a charitable corporation located in Bristol, RI.
I want to give, but what should I contribute? Cash, Stocks, Life Insurance
Donors frequently think their only option is to make an outright gift of cash to their charity of choice. While this is a positive way to make your charitable gift, a gift can be made with almost anything: cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate-even property such as artwork and royalties. Please contact Karen Binder, at 401-253-2707 ext. 12 if you have questions.
For example, here is more information on how gifts of securities provide you with even greater tax benefits.
Gifts of Securities:
When making a gift of appreciated securities (stock, bond and mutual fund shares), your gift will be credited at the current market value and you may take a tax deduction for this amount. If you have held the stock for more than one year, you may also avoid capital gains taxes on the appreciation.
How a $1,000 Investment Yields a $10,000 Gift
George and Virginia were considering a large annual gift to Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum. Because Virginia had done very well in the market, Virginia wondered about the advantages of giving stock rather than simply writing a check.
After contacting Blithewold to inquire about gifts of stock, they learned that giving appreciated assets is a win-win situation: Making a gift of stock would not affect their current income or cash flow. Plus, giving appreciated securities (owned for more than one year) would avoid the capital gains tax that George and Virginia would incur had they sold the stock.
The couple therefore made a $10,000 gift (see chart below) from their $1,000 investment—the amount they originally paid for the stock—saved $1,350 in capital gains taxes and made a gift to a charity that has been an important part of their life.
| Gift of Cash | Gift of Stock | |
|---|---|---|
| Charitable deduction | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Appreciation | NA | $9,000 |
| Savings from income tax deduction (28% bracket) | ($2,800) | ($2,800) |
| Savings from capital gains tax avoided (15% bracket) | NA | ($1,350) |
| Net cost of gift | $7,200 | $5,850 |
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Sunday, February 12
Sailor’s Valentine Party -
Friday, February 17
For the Love of Jazz and Chocolate -
Monday, February 20
- Friday, February 24
Blithewold February Vacation Camp
Upcoming events
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Spring tease
(Jan 30, '12)
It’s still January for at least for another day or so, but it looks strangely an awful lot like mid-February – or even March here and there, and feels about the same. My brain thinks that means that May is right around the corner. But it isn’t. Not by a long shot. We can’t have ... -
FEBRUARY 1904 – EGYPT
(Feb 01, '12)
FEBRUARY 1904 – EGYPT February 1st 1904 found Marjorie and her chaperone Miss Helen Macartnay steaming south toward the old historic city of Luxor, site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Arriving in the evening, they moored directly beneath … Continue reading
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