Support Our Work

Including the Society for Marine Mammalogy in your planned giving is easy and your plan can be as varied and unique as the marine mammals that inspire you. Legacy giving isn’t just for the wealthy. Whether $500 or $50 million, every legacy gift makes a difference and helps ensure that the SMM will be supporting scientists around the world who are dedicated to studying and protecting what’s most important to you.

Already have a will or trust?
It’s easy to add the Society for Marine Mammalogy as a beneficiary. If you have already included the Society for Marine Mammalogy in your will or trust or plan to add us, please notify us via email at president@marinemammalscience.org.

Add the Society for Marine Mammalogy to Your Will
What will your legacy be?

  • Protecting the world’s most endangered marine mammal species
  • Supporting marine mammal scientists in places that need your help the most
  • Creating the next generation of marine mammal scientists to continue the work

Our success is a direct result of donations from people like you.

There are multiple ways to donate to the Society for Marine Mammalogy. Giving cash is certainly one option but there are alternative ways to give that can be more tax efficient. Two common and easy ways to give include: giving appreciated securities from non-retirement accounts and making charitable distributions from retirement accounts.

Type of Gift: Appreciated Securities (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc)

From: Non-Retirement Investment Account

When you donate stock to charity, your gift is tax deductible for the fair market value of the stock on the date of the gift. Donating stock does not create a capital gains tax liability for you or for the charity. Whereas selling stock and then giving the cash recognizes realized gains and it taxable to you. Instead, donating appreciated stock avoids the tax on the gains.

For instance, if you own $10,000 worth of ABC stock that you bought several years ago for $2,000 and you donate the stock, you will not have to pay capital gains stock on the $8,000 gain.

Type of Gift: Qualified Charitable Distributions

From: Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is another excellent tax-efficient way to make charitable gifts. Provided you are age 70½ or older, you can make a distribution directly to a charity up to $100,000 per year from your IRA. A QCD can be used towards satisfying your annual Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), too. Instead of the tax benefit coming to you as a tax-deductible gift similar to when you give cash, the QCD from you IRA is not counted towards your taxable income. The amount of your QCD is completely excluded from your taxable income. A QCD is popular with retirees who normally make charitable donations.

For instance, if your RMD is $ 20,000 and you make a $ 15,000 QCD, your taxable IRA income is only the remaining $5,000 to satisfy your RMD. Or, if your RMD is $ 30,000 and you satisfy your RMD by giving a total of $ 30,000 in one or more QCDs, you will have no taxable income from your IRA. In this instance, you get to make the charitable contribution, satisfy your RMD and have no taxable income.

For more information, ask your financial advisor or contact us or connect with our financial advisor, Harfst and Associates, directly at 541-488-2634 or info@harfst.com.

Below you will find the information necessary to transfer your shares into our account as a tax-deductible gift.

Please contact our account manager, Danette Harfst or the Secretary of the Society (secretary@marinemammalscience.org) to let us know you’ve made a stock gift so we know who to thank!

the Society for Marine Mammalogy broker information (this is where your broker should transfer the stock):

Investment Firm: Harfst and Associates, Inc.
Account Name: The Society for Marine Mammalogy
Account Number: 85262236
DTC Clearing Number: 0164
DTC Code: 40
Account Manager: Danette Harfst
Phone Number: 541-488-2634
Address: 1970 Ashland Street, Ashland, OR 97520
E-mail: danette@harfst.com