June 24, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Donors age 65 and older are making far more outright gifts of appreciated stock, mutual funds, and other investments than previously thought, according to an analysis of IRS data released last month by the Sharpe Group, a Memphis planned-giving consulting firm.
Such donors gave $10.1-billion in stocks and other related gifts in 2005, the most recent year for which data are available from the IRS. That’s 51 percent of the total, a larger share than for any other age group. It is more than double the next largest share, 21 percent given by donors aged 55 to 64, the analysis found.
“If you had asked me to guess where most of these gifts were coming from, I would have said the 45- to 65-year old corporate executives and others with large investment holdings,” says Robert F. Sharpe, the consulting firm’s president. “I was wrong.”
Most charities haven’t concentrated on seeking big gifts of stock and other investments from donors older than 65; instead, they ask for bequests and other planned gifts like gift annuities that provide donors with regular payments, Mr. Sharpe notes. But the data prove that many donors can afford to make big outright gifts with investments past the age of 65.
What’s more, those donors have been in the market long enough to have realized returns that far exceed the recent downturn in the economy, Mr. Sharpe says.
“Planned-giving people are having tea and cookies with Grandma in hopes of getting into the will,” he says. “They might want to ask if she has any stock.”
—Holly Hall
