We are delighted to tell you the ways you can donate to the Friends of the Historic Carleton Airport, a non-profit (IRS section 501(c)(3) organization. The Board members are covering administrative costs for the organization, so any money you donate will go 100% to the upkeep of the Historic Carleton Airport at Stanton Field.
Contribution Options
Send us a check payable to the “Friends of the Historic Carleton Airport.” Our address is 3925 30th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406. If your donation is being made in honor of someone or a special event, please tell us the name and address of where to send the acknowledgement note.
Place a cash or check donation in the white donation box at the airport.
Use your credit card to give us a donation through GiveMN.org. (GiveMN.org works year-round, not just during the November “Give to the Max” day.)
Donate appreciated shares of stock or shares of a mutual fund. You get a charitable contribution acknowledgement for the current price of the shares. We get the donation and turn it into cash. Nobody pays capital gains tax on the investment sale. (We have a brokerage account at Vanguard to help us facilitate this kind of donation.)
Make a Qualified Charitable Distribution. Are you older than 70 ½ and have an Individual Retirement Account? You can donate up to $100,000.00 from your IRA account directly to a charity every year. The Internal Revenue Service calls this a Qualified Charitable Distribution. Your direct-from-the-IRA donation to us counts toward any required minimum distribution, but is not included in your IRS income.
What’s the advantage of that? Perhaps you will be taking a “standard deduction” on your tax return. Especially with the new tax law, your charitable giving may not be enough to impact your tax bill. Giving money to a charity via a Qualified Charitable Distribution makes the donation tax free to you. Also, under just the right financial circumstances, donating money via a Qualified Charitable Distribution might keep your annual income below that which triggers a Medicare part B & D surcharge.
If you wish to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution to us, ask your IRA custodian for instructions. The donation has to come from the IRA custodian directly to the charity without passing through your hands. (Please note: If you are still working and making contributions to your IRA after you are 70 ½, there are some complicated rules that may not make this a good deal for you.) Additional Qualified Charitable Distribution Details Here.
Donor Advised Funds. If you’ve contributed to a donor advised fund you can suggest that some of those funds come our way. Ask your donor advised fund manager for instructions.
Employer Match. Some employers match a portion of their employee or retiree contributions to charity. We are delighted to get these matching funds and very much appreciate your effort to send them our way. (We sometimes have trouble tracing the employer match disbursements back to the person who made them possible. Please feel free to clue us in to your identity so we can properly thank you.)
Donation in kind. If you’ve paid for supplies or equipment used in the hangar, barn, or runways at Stanton Field, you’ve contributed to the upkeep of the Historic Carleton Airport. Keep those receipts as proof of your charitable deduction. Your mileage to and from the airfield may also qualify for a charitable deduction if you spent volunteer time keeping up the historic portion of the airfield.
Long range planning. You can make a bequest to the Friends of the Historic Carleton Airport in your will or make the Friends of the Historic Carleton Airport a beneficiary or alternate beneficiary on life insurance or financial accounts (such as an IRA). We would get your donation after you’ve left this earth. This could really annoy your survivors, so be sure to check with your estate planning professionals before implementing these choices.
I’ll close with the same phrase all those other charity pleas contain: This is not meant to be tax advice. Consult your tax professional for guidance.
Vicki Chouinard
Secretary/Treasurer
Friends of the Historic Carleton Airport
3925 30th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Vicki Chouinard, Secretary/Treasurer – 612-724-6009
FriendsOfTheHCA@gmail.com