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Gifts of Real Estate
If you have owned your home, a vacation home, apartment building, retail buildings, acreage, or a ranch for many years, a charitable gift of that real estate can be especially tax-advantageous. The property may have so appreciated in value over the years that its sale would result in sizeable capital gains tax. If given to OLT instead, you avoid the tax and, at the same time, realize a charitable deduction for the full fair market value of the real estate.
You may also wish to consider a gift of your personal residence or ranch, reserving the right to continue to live in the house or ranch property for life (and if applicable, the lifetime of your surviving spouse). Through such an arrangement, you will be entitled to a current income tax deduction for a portion of the fair market value of the property.
- Types of Real Estate Gifts
OLT accepts two types of real estate gifts — both of which are critical to our work:
- Gifts we call "trade lands" — real estate gifts that donors permit us to sell, with the proceeds going to support our work. Examples of those are mentioned above.
- Land which donors would like to permanently protect through permanent conservation easement or in-fee donation:
- Conservation Easements
A most important tool, these binding legal arrangements provide both land preservation and continued private ownership. Becoming part of the title of the property, such easement restrictions can be tailored to the landowner's interests and, under OLT monitoring and enforcement, remain in effect regardless of future ownership. - Land Acquisition
OLT may identify and acquire environmentally-important land for landscape protection according to its Land Conservation Master Plan, generally sought as an outright in-fee donation or acquisition at a bargain price which affords tax deductibility to the seller
OLT is not able to protect or receive all of the real estate that is offered to us for protection through conservation easement, bargain price acquisition or in-fee donation. The decision to accept or decline land in the San Luis Valley for preservation through conservation easement, bargain price acquisition or in-fee donation is made by OLT’s Board of Directors in conjunction with its mission and Land Conservation Strategic Plan. If you are interested in making such a gift, please contact OLT’s Executive Director, Doug Bishop.
Gifts of Stock
Year-end is an excellent time to consider a gift of stock
Giving long-term appreciated stock or mutual funds offers you a two-fold tax saving. First, you avoid paying any capital gains tax on the increase in value of your stock. In addition, you receive a tax deduction for the full fair market value on the date of the gift. For income tax purposes the value of such gifts may be deducted up to an allowable amount determined by the IRS -- please check with your tax advisor.
Example: If you purchased stock many years ago for $1,000 and it is now worth $10,000, an outright gift of that stock to OLT would result in a charitable deduction of $10,000. In addition, you permanently avoid paying capital gains tax on the $9,000 of appreciation.
Your gift of stock or mutual funds can also be used to fund a charitable gift annuity, diversifying your portfolio and/or securing a stream of income.
How it works
- You transfer securities to Orient Land Trust and receive an income tax deduction.
- OLT sells your securities and uses the proceeds for its programs.
Benefits
- You receive gift credit and an immediate income tax deduction for the fair market value of the securities on the date of transfer, no matter what you originally paid for them.
- You pay no capital gains tax on the securities you donate.
- You can direct your gift to a specific fund or purpose.
- You have the satisfaction of making a significant gift now or funding a life-income gift that benefits OLT later.
Gifts of Cash
There is no easier way to garner a charitable deduction for 2013 – and support Orient Land Trust at the same time – than by simply writing a check or making a donation on-line with a credit/ debit! When renewing your membership in OLT, please consider adding on a donation to support the broader mission of OLT that includes, besides the hot springs, open space land conservation, environmental education, sustainable agriculture/ ranching practices, holistic grazing and permaculture systems, and job skills training for youth of the valley.
Benefits of a Gift of Cash
- It’s the simplest asset with which to make your donation — no appraisal or acceptance requirements as with gifts of appreciated property.
- Delivers a gift that Orient Land Trust can use immediately and is the easiest for OLT to accept.
- You receive a full charitable deduction, and apply it against a larger percentage of your taxable income than a deduction for a property gift.
There's an extra benefit:
You can claim the entire amount of your cash gift as a charitable income tax deduction up to the amount allowable by the IRS – please consult your tax advisor concerning this allowable amount.
Make sure your mail envelope, money-order, wire transfer or on-line donation is postmarked, dated or charged by the end of the year on December 31st. If it is, your gift will qualify as a 2013 gift even if it not received by OLT until the first week of 2014. The check should be made out to Orient Land Trust.
REMEMBER
Although a cash gift can provide immediate benefit to OLT, you can also use it to fund a life-income plan such as a charitable gift annuity.
Ways to Give
Giving is as easy as 1) making a charitable gift, and 2) saving taxes. We’d like to make it even easier with this primer on some of the best ways to save – and give.
The tax laws intentionally encourage charitable giving. Because of the income tax charitable deduction, individuals who make their gifts by December 31 and itemize can significantly reduce their income taxes for 2013.
Example: If you make a charitable gift of $10,000 in 2013, you save $3,300 in taxes if you are in the 33% tax bracket. And the higher your tax bracket, the more money you save with a charitable gift.
Giving, of course, is much more than tax brackets and charitable deductions. Philanthropy provides the opportunity for you to really make a meaningful difference for the causes about which you re passionate. Orient Land Trust is here to help you fulfill your philanthropic goals.
The ways of giving listed below are only a brief introduction to some of the best tax-advantaged methods of giving. We would be pleased to provide you with further information. Also, we urge you to discuss your 2013 year-end tax planning with your accountant or other professional advisor.
Permaculture
Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, and environmental design that develops sustainable architecture and self-maintained agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.
The core tenets of permaculture are:
Care of the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
Care of the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.
Return of Surplus: Reinvesting surpluses back into the system to provide for the first two ethics. This includes returning waste back into the system to recycle into usefulness.
Permaculture design emphasizes patterns of landscape, function, and species assemblies. It asks the question, "Where does this element go? How can it be placed for the maximum benefit of the system?" To answer this question, the central concept of permaculture is maximizing useful connections between components and synergy of the final design. The focus of permaculture, therefore, is not on each separate element, but rather on the relationships created among elements by the way they are placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts. Permaculture design therefore seeks to minimize waste, human labor, and energy input by building systems with maximal benefits between design elements to achieve a high level of synergy. Permaculture designs evolve over time by taking into account these relationships and elements and can become extremely complex systems that produce a high density of food and materials with minimal input]
The design principles which are the conceptual foundation of permaculture were derived from the science of systems ecology and study of pre-industrial examples of sustainable land use. Permaculture draws from several disciplines including organic farming, agroforestry, integrated farming,sustainable development, and applied ecology. Permaculture has been applied most commonly to the design of housing and landscaping, integrating techniques such as agroforestry, natural building, and rainwater harvesting within the context of permaculture design principles and theory. (Wikipedia)
OLT is working with High Altitude Permaculture (www.hialtpc.org) and its students to help design optimal agriculture systems for the OLT lands. Sandy Cruz, Peter Bane and Becky Elder lead permaculture workshops to facilitate the spreading of this marvelous, natural way of working with nature to preserve our lands, provide responsible foods, and enhance our environments.
Holistic Grazing
Grasses across the earth developed with large herds of prey (ibex, yaks, bison, camels, elk, moose, and, yes, the ancestors of cows, goats, sheep, etc.), and their predators – wolves, lions, hyenas, etc. Think of the Serengeti in the movies - the prey lived in large bunches, eating all plants down to a healthy level, pooping and peeing and working it all into the earth with their feet. When the predators came around, the herd moved on quickly, in a tight herd, to start the process over again elsewhere. The result was healthy plants, roots and soils.
Today we have eradicated the large herds of wild prey and most of the predators. We have divided vast grasslands into plots of a few acres (even many acres) surrounded by fences. As a result, not surprisingly, the grasses are suffering. Grasses are important. They are, on a global scale, huge carbon sequesterers (hmmm, a word?). So, it's a good thing to optimize their health to optimize our health.
And the way to do that on a large scale is to help to bring back the model of predator-prey dynamics to our grasslands. A few issues, certainly. We have the prey, in the shape of food animals. However, as we have fenced the entire world, we can't just let the proverbial wolf loose because the prey animals would not be able to flee naturally. So what to do?
Alan Savory, of The Savory Institute (savoryinstitute.com), has been working all over the world for decades to help food producers mimic the prey-predator model of grasses revival to great success and acclaim. His premise is that even though it is not realistic to bring in predators, we can use our cattle, goats, sheep to revive grasslands by stepping in and using holistic grazing management to take their place. The method is to put a lot of animals on a small area of land and move them quickly when they've eaten the grass down to a desired level and only bring them back when the grass is ready. That is done with lots of determination, work, and electric fence. The result is healthy roots, healthy soils that readily absorb and hinder evaporation of the sparse water, and healthy grasses of multiple species. This will not create immediate results. It will require hard work and dedication for years.
To that end, OLT has entered into a collaborative partnership with a local ranch, Arrowpoint Cattle Company (you might have eaten their delicious beef that we sell at OLT!), which has been using this grazing method for years. We have also joined hands with the Savory Institute, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Bureau of Land Management, and our neighbors, Richard and Linda, to bring this effective process to the Everson Ranch, Richard and Linda's lands, and OLT's BLM grazing allotments, in order to bring our grasslands back.
Arrowpoint's cattle are Scottish Highland, small, drought and harsh weather resistant beauties that are trained to a whistle and a kind word. In the last few days we've brought in nearly 40 cows and calves. And they are beauties. We'll have a total of around 120 furry beings in the project.
OLT has always had cattle on the Everson Ranch. The difference now is that we are practicing natural resource enhancement as opposed to commodities resource extraction.
So come help us celebrate our commitment to the preservation of OLT's beautiful lands and helping to build a model of sustainable agriculture so ranchers in the Northern San Luis Valley can continue to ranch and preserve our beautiful open spaces!
Vendors
Trading Post
Massage Therapists
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Fine Art: Painting Workshop - July 28-31
Presented by Orient Land Trust
and Artist Jude Bischoff
Join this four day intensive painting workshop covering composition, drawing and painting techniques that will have you making beautiful paintings with no pre-planning or preconceived ideas. Jude believes in letting art flow from your soul like water from a mountain spring.
July 28 through July 31, 2013
All paint and materials included, for more information contact Jude at 760-668-9408
View Jude’s work at www.judebischoff.com
The incredibly beautiful Orient Land Trust’s Everson Ranch and Valley View Hot Springs will be the setting for our painting workshop. Our work will focus on the rustic ranch house, the sweeping open plains and mountains of the Northern San Luis Valley and the flowing and scenic waters of the creeks, hot springs and pools. This workshop is for beginner through professional artists. You will experience painting techniques and methods you can bring to your home or studio. We will be working with acrylic paint.
Day 1 Sunday July 28th: We begin at 10 am after soaking and breakfast and immediately get paint on our hands. Please wear clothes you do not mind getting painted. We will be discussing composition and texture on large 4 ft x 4 ft canvases. You will be divided into groups of up to 5 people depending on the attendance to create beautiful art on a horizontal plane. After lunch we will focus on plein air painting. Each participant will get three 24x30 inch canvases to work on over the next three days. Please bring along two or three pieces of your finished art for critique and discussion. Beginners just come ready to learn.
Day 2 Monday July 29th: We will be drawing on large pads of paper with markers. The morning session will discuss line and practice various forms of line work that we will later incorporate into our paintings. After lunch we will study the flowing water and natural forms around the springs. You will also have the option of starting your second painting.
Day 3 Tuesday July 30th: The morning session will begin with life drawing around the springs. The models will be in semi motion so you can better capture their essence rather than focusing on a pre-planned idea of what they should look like. You will be using both your drawing pads and your third canvas. Remember drawing skills are not important, what is important is that you come with an open mind. After lunch we will incorporate these drawings and exercises into your paintings.
Day 4 Wednesday July 31st: This day will be devoted to working on your paintings in an open forum. I will meet with each of you individually throughout the day to discuss your work, goals and techniques. I will also give a group talk on the business of selling your art. Evening after dinner will be a camp fire (if fire restrictions allow) and recap of our workshop.
Evenings and in between sessions there will be time for quiet reflection, music and exploration of this amazing landscape.
Cost $449.00
Paypal or check:
Jude Bischoff, PO Box 1202 Cedar Ridge, CA. 95924
No refunds after June 15th
Book soon, group is limited to 12 participants and Valley View Hot Springs fills up quickly!
Participants are responsible for booking their own accommodations and supplying their own food and drink during the workshop. Orient Land Trust 719-256-5212
Lifecycle of a Frozen Dinner
Looking at the entire lifecycle of the products we buy can lead to a new understanding of sustainable choices and our impact on the planet's resources. When we buy a product, we generally aren't thinking of everything that went into getting that product to our home or what happens to it after we are finished with it. A simple action such as throwing away an uneaten frozen dinner is only one step in a complex chain of activities. Making a more sustainable choice at any point in that product's lifecycle can reduce our use of resources or our impact on the planet. This graphic shows only a portion of the long chain of activities in the unused frozen dinner's existence.
In this instance, more sustainable choices might include:
- Eat the dinner instead of throwing it away unused
- Buy food with less packaging
- Buy (or grow) local, sustainably farmed food
- Recycle the plastic and cardboard