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BECOME A MEMBER

If you are not already a member, please join now! Once you are a member, you automatically help satisfy grant requirements for demonstrated general support or support from specific geographic areas. You also become an integral part of our work to conserve this wonderful part of the world.

A LIFETIME membership is only $35 and keeps you up to date on our programs and projects via our semi-annual newsletter (click here for past editions). To become a member, click the "membership" button above or, if you prefer, print out and mail in your membership application today!

ANNUAL FUND

In addition to your membership, which documents broad support for our work when we apply for grants, we would not survive without your donations. Your yearly support for our volunteer-run organization provides for office and field supplies, trail signage and improvements, communications and maps, filing and surveying fees, taxes, and other expenses that enable us to protect the land that is a vital resource for people, plants, and animals.

WHPA is an IRS 501(c)(3) corporation, and your contribution qualifies for both federal and state tax donations. To make a donation click on the "donate" button above, or print and mail the donation form. Thank you very much!

ACTIVATE NO-COST AmazonSmile DONATIONS

Amazon’s Smile program can regularly give a donation to WHPA that is NOT an add-on to your purchase price, but is a donation that will be equivalent to one-half of one percent of your purchase amount…and all at no cost to you. Purchases that generate a donation are generally those bought directly through Amazon, not those bought from one of Amazon’s partners.

If you’re interested in this easy way to send an additional contribution to WHPA without any expense on your part and if you have an Amazon account, go to Smile.Amazon.com and sign in to your account. (You may be linked to it automatically.) On the top bar of the page that opens up, hover over Accounts & Lists. Choose Your Account in the Your Account column. Scroll down to the Shopping programs and rentals box (far right on the second line of big boxes) and click on Change your charity. Find the box entitled Or pick your own charitable organization. Type in Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association. Click on Select. That’s all there is to it, except that you need to remember to sign in to Smile.Amazon.com for your online purchases if you want WHPA to benefit.

Only one beneficiary may be designated at a time, but if you’ve already chosen a charity, you can change or even rotate your chosen organization by simply signing in and following the directions above. It’s that easy to help WHPA and its conservation efforts. We hope you’ll consider supporting Pinnacle in this additional, no-cost way.

GIFTS OF STOCK OR SECURITIES

For a donation of stocks or securities, please contact [email protected].

IRA ROLLOVER OR RMD DISTRIBUTION

Under the 2015 Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act [PATH], the IRA Charitable Rollover is extended permanently. As a result, you or your spouse (if over age 70 1/2) can authorize your IRA/Roth custodian or plan administrator to make a qualified charitable distribution directly to WHPA, and that tax-free donation can count toward your Required Minimum Distribution [RMD]. Please note that if you take the distribution yourself and then gift it or direct the distribution through a donor advised fund, the amount will count as taxable income. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Members interested in exploring any of these options are invited to contact [email protected].

Clearing the Trail

CONSIDER PLANNED GIVING

Thanks to a partnership with the Vermont Community Foundation [VCF], WHPA members can now make gifts that support the Association’s work while gaining income and tax advantages. Planned giving is a way of supporting non-profits, such as the Pinnacle Association, in many different ways: 

• bequest,
• including WHPA as a beneficiary on a life insurance policy or retirement account,
• charitable gift annuities (CGAs), or
• charitable remainder trusts (CRTs).

Charitable gift annuities make fixed payments, starting either when the gift is made (an immediate-payment gift annuity) or at a later date (a deferred or flexible gift annuity). Charitable remainder unitrusts and annuity trusts are individually managed trusts that pay the beneficiaries either a fixed percentage of trust income or a fixed dollar amount.

While some planned gifts, such as charitable gift annuities, provide lifelong income to the donor, others use estate- and tax-planning techniques to provide for charity and other heirs in ways that maximize the gift and/or minimize its impact on the donor's estate.

What are the tax benefits of planned gifts?

• Donors can contribute appreciated property, like securities or real estate, receive a charitable deduction for the full market value of the asset, and pay no capital gains tax on the transfer.
• Donors who establish a life-income gift receive a tax deduction for the full, fair market value of the assets contributed, minus the present value of the income interest retained. If they fund their gift with appreciated property, they pay no upfront capital gains tax on the transfer.
• Gifts payable to charity upon the donor’s death, like a bequest or a beneficiary designation in a life insurance policy or retirement account, do not generate a lifetime income tax deduction for the donor, but they are exempt from estate tax.