preserving what matters to you

Making your plans for Evanston’s future.

The Foundation is here to help you do things you’ve always wanted to do for Evanston. What matters to you? Providing for Evanston’s needs in ways we can’t now imagine, ensuring a brighter future for a particular cause or organization? These are among the wishes that we can help you fulfill.

a simple way to make a profound difference

Your bequest to ECF is a simple way to leave a lasting gift to your community. Our strong track record in managing endowment and the close connections we maintain with Evanston nonprofits make the Evanston Community Foundation uniquely qualified to carry forward your wishes.

you have choices

A bequest to the unrestricted endowment strengthens the Foundation’s response to Evanston’s needs over time. You may also apply your gift to a defined field of interest, or for the benefit of a specific nonprofit organization.

Estate gifts to the Foundation allow you to retain assets during your lifetime while also providing for the future of the community you care about! Such gifts may also offer tax benefits to your estate and heirs. You can give a stated dollar amount, a specific property, a percentage of your estate or the remainder after distributions to other beneficiaries.

You can also choose to give your assets now and to receive income for life. Transferring cash, securities or property to the Foundation can reduce your income tax, capital gains tax, and estate tax burdens.

working with your advisor and the Foundation

We recommend that you consult your attorney, financial planner or other professional advisor in assessing the options best for you. For a confidential discussion of planned-giving options, please contact our CFO, Jan Fischer or Jessi Donaldson, our Director of Development & Communications.

You need not inform the Foundation of your future gifts, but we would appreciate the opportunity to be certain we understand your wishes and to thank you for your commitment. We don’t need to know any details. Your participation is nonbinding and will be kept anonymous if you wish.

our Daniel Burnham Society

If you let us know that you’ve included ECF in your future plans, we’d like to honor you with membership in the Daniel Burnham Society, named for the great architect and planner who was an Evanston resident. We may treasure different things about our community, but preserving what matters to each of us is another way of giving back to the community we all call home. You can set aside any amount with confidence that future Evanstonians will use it as gratefully and carefully as we have in this generation, even after we are gone.