Planned Giving

We appreciate the commitment and generosity of all our supporters. Despite age or current financial status, planned gifts are a method of ensuring that the people and causes you care about most, like Optometry Cares, will be taken care of and continue our mission for future generations.

Start here by learning about the various gift options available to you.

Bequest

By making a bequest to Optometry Cares, a gift included in your will or living trust, ensures the necessary future funding needed to enrich and enhance the lives of children, adults, and families through medical and behavioral healthcare, social services, and education.

IRA Charitable Rollover

Donors 70½ years old and older are eligible to make a tax-free gift of any amount (up to a maximum of $100,000) from their IRA called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). QCDs are one way to reduce tax liability regardless of whether you itemize deductions or not. Since the gift does not count as income, it can reduce a donor’s annual income level.

Stock Gifts

Making a gift to Optometry Cares through gifts of appreciated stock and securities has tax benefits and often allows donors to make a larger gift than they thought possible. Your stock gift will allow Optometry Cares to help improve eye health and support vision care across the country.

If you are interested in making a stock gift to Optometry Cares, click here.

Sample, Non-binding Bequest Language

If you would like to include Optometry Cares in your bequest, here is a sample language.

“I give to Optometry Cares, a nonprofit corporation currently located at 243 N. Lindbergh, St. Louis, MO 63141, or its successor thereto, and federal tax identification number 23-7292391 ______________ [written amount or _______ percentage of the estate or description of property] for its unrestricted use and purpose.”

If you have already included Optometry Cares in your will or trust, please click here to report your gift. We would love to connect with you, thank you, learn more about your gift.

Donor Advised Funds  

You can designate Optometry Cares as a beneficiary of your external donor-advised fund (DAF) as a way to provide support to children and families in crisis. Through your DAF, you can grant direct support to Optometry Cares by providing information about your request to the sponsoring organization.

Each DAF sponsoring organization will have the necessary forms needed to complete your donation, which can often be accessed through an online portal or by contacting your fund advisor.

Click here to share your intent with us so that we can work with you to process your DAF gift.

Beneficiary Designations

Not everyone wants to commit to making a gift in their wills or estates. Some prefer the increased flexibility that a beneficiary designation provides by using:

• IRAs and retirement plans
• Life insurance policies
• Commercial annuities

Once you have decided to name Optometry Cares as a beneficiary you must determine the percentage that you would like Optometry Cares to receive. Afterward, you should work directly with your retirement plan administrator, insurance provider, bank, or financial institution to complete a change-of-beneficiary form, so that you can Optometry Cares.

If you’ve included Optometry Cares as a beneficiary or are interested in doing so, please click here to let us know.