Legacy and Planned Giving 

Bill Clemens, Ph.D.
“Scientists know that chance plays a key role in discovery. Through my legacy gift to the Academy’s Fellows Fund, I can give future scientists the flexibility to pursue their discoveries, wherever they may lead them.”
—Bill Clemens, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Integrative Biology
and Curator, University of California Museum of Paleontology

Planned gifts are visionary gifts. They can support future scientific discovery in ways that reflect your personal relationship with the Academy and your own philanthropic interests, as well as your financial needs.

What to Give

Cash is the simplest and most direct way to support the Academy, while a gift of appreciated securities provides an attractive alternative. A real estate gift may dramatically simplify management and maintenance issues, or you may give valuable personal property related to the Academy’s mission. Gifts of the remainder of your retirement-plan assets qualify for double tax benefits, or donating your life insurance policy enables you to make a future gift at limited immediate cost.

 
 

How to Give

A bequest is a provision in your will or living trust that directs funds to the Academy. There is also a variety of life income plans—such as charitable remainder trusts and pooled income funds—that enables you to make a gift in exchange for income; you transfer the asset but continue to receive income payments. Academy members know they can count on our financial expertise and service commitment to steward their philanthropic investments with care and vision.

 
 

Eastwood Associates

Alice Eastwood was the Academy’s curator of botany from 1894 to 1949. When she died in 1953 at age 94, she bequeathed to the Academy an extensive collection of botanical publications that scientists and students continue to use. Today, the Eastwood Associates celebrates those whose planned gifts will endow the Academy and support future discovery and education. It is a lifetime privilege and members are honored at special gatherings and in Academy publications.

  
 

Did you know?

Morrison Planetarium, among the first of its kind, was funded by May Treat Morrison, who made a bequest in memory of her husband.

  
 

Contact

    

Louise Gregory
321-8407
lgregory

California Academy of Sciences
875 Howard St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

Reasons to Give

    

Besides supporting the Academy, planned gifts can offer donors compelling benefits:

  • Retain or increase your income.
  • Deduct part of your gift as an immediate charitable contribution.
  • Avoid or reduce capital-gains taxes.
  • Memorialize a lifetime commitment to the Academy through an endowed named fund.
  • Know that the assets you built over a lifetime will be managed by an historic institution with a record of careful stewardship.