Ways to Give

Cash Gifts

The most immediate gift you can make is one made by credit/debit card transaction, cash, personal check, cashier’s check and money order made payable to the Sacramento Valley Conservancy. These unrestricted funds sustain the organization throughout the year, particularly with properties that do not have their own endowments or funding sources, and community outreach programs.

Recurring Giving

Set up automatic monthly, quarterly or annual payments with your credit/debit card. As a recurring donor, you can modify the amount and the gift will appear on your credit/debit card, and cancel any time. Your Conservancy membership will be automatically updated every year and your gift is supporting the Conservancy’s mission in a cost-efficient manner that allows for future planning.

Gift Membership

A gift membership is a thoughtful way to share your passion for open lands preservation and introduce friends and professional associates to the Conservancy’s mission and values. The recipient of the gift will be welcomed into a family of individuals committed to preserving a livable California. Member benefits include seasonal newsletters, invitations to events, and updates on land conservation projects.

Memorial Gifts

Honor the memory of a friend or cherished person with a memorial gift to SVC. Memorial gifts are listed in our newsletter and will appear on our website. A card will be mailed to the family.

Memorial picnic tables with custom plaques can be sponsored for $2,000 and placed at Camp Pollock or Deer Creek Hills Preserve.
SVC Table Dedication Request Form

Season Passes

A $75 Season Pass, either for yourself or as a gift for a friend, allows access to all guided tours like birding, history, and geology hikes, as well as trail runs, star gazing, yoga, equestrian rides (BYO horse), mountain biking, summer concerts and Cowboy Breakfast. Activities take place at Deer Creek Hills Preserve or Camp Pollock. Season Passes are not valid at special ticketed fundraisers like Glamp-out, Mountain Bike Demo Day, and Treasures of the Valley, or for events hosted by licensee organizations like Clipped In Races, FLOW, and Summer Moon Yoga.

Matching Gifts

Matching gifts can significantly increase the impact of your gift to SVC. Many employers have matching gift programs that may result in a doubling or tripling of contributions made by their employees. Some will even pay employees to volunteer their time with a nonprofit. If your company has such a program, request a matching gift form and send it completed and signed to Sue Spivey.

Planned Giving

Planned giving can provide you with a practical means to integrate estate, financial, retirement and philanthropic objectives simultaneously. Illustrative approaches include Remainder Trusts, Gift Annuities, Lead Trusts, Remainder Annuity Trusts, Remainder Unitrusts, Living Trusts and Retained Life Estates. For additional information about these planned giving concepts as a way to support the Conservancy’s mission contact your Financial advisor or contact Kelly Hopkins, for a reference list of Capital Region financial advisors and attorneys who are available to assist you.

Publicly Traded Securities

Publicly traded securities can be used to make an outright gift. In gifting publicly traded securities, you may defer or avoid the result of long-term capital gain in those securities. You may also obtain a charitable deduction from your income or estate taxes for the full market value of those securities. You may deduct your total charitable gifts of appreciated property for the year for up to 30% of your adjusted gross income. Contact Kelly Hopkins for additional assistance.

Tax Deferred Retirement Assets

To make this kind of gift, contact your asset plan administrator and request that SVC be added or named as a beneficiary. Asset plans may include an IRA, charitable trust, retirement account or mutual fund. Generally, the amount of the gift made through a beneficiary designation can be accepted by SVC with no income tax due. The Pension Protection Act enables eligible IRA owners to obtain the tax advantages of making charitable distribution if the payments are made directly.

Personal Property

We welcome gifts of personal property that would advance the mission of the Conservancy. Contact Aimee Rutledge to determine if the Conservancy can make use of the offering. If the gift is worth more than $5,000, you will want to obtain an appraisal from a qualified appraiser.  Gifts of intangible personal property such as patents, mineral rights and copyrights can also provide significant support for land acquisition and stewardship.

Gift of Real Estate

Real estate can be contributed to the Conservancy outright or by way of a life-income gift of the entire property or a fractional interest of it. A gift of a future interest in your home, for example, lets you continue to live in your home while obtaining a significant current income tax charitable deduction. Farms, vacation homes and working landscapes (grazing and forest lands) may also be given to the Conservancy.

Bequests

Giving by bequest (unrestricted or restricted) will provide you with the satisfaction of knowing that your gift could provide open landscapes for people and habitat forever. A gift from your estate is completely free from federal estate taxes, enabling the Conservancy to invest the full amount of the bequest. This lasting legacy will help permanently protect open space in the Sacramento Valley region.

Life Insurance Gifts

When you make the Conservancy the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, your estate will receive a charitable deduction from estate taxes for the gift. You may also make SVC the owner of a life insurance policy during your lifetime and, under certain circumstances, obtain an income tax charitable deduction.

Gift Pledges

The Conservancy encourages you to make a gift through a pledge, a formal expression of intent to make a gift to the Conservancy. Through a pledge a gift may be made by making regular payment over time enabling to support the work of the Conservancy at a higher level than you thought might be possible. Each payment of a pledge is eligible for an income tax deduction.

Gifts of Services

Service pledges can be of significant value to preserving open spaces and working landscapes for future generations. These include, but are not limited to: printing, marketing, media relations, land appraisal, data management and digital media. Lend your professional services, volunteer your free time, or contact us to chat about other in-kind opportunities.

Research Collaborations

Unique opportunities exist for field research on a wide range of subjects on selected Conservancy owned or easement controlled properties. Such opportunities include jointly prepared and submitted grant applications to agencies of government, institutions of high learning, and private foundations. Proposals for such engagements will be reviewed by SVC Stewardship Staff and the Board of Trustees.

Individual or Business Sponsor

Join other individuals, businesses, and professional services organizations as an annual Conservancy Sponsor. Sponsors receive recognition on SVC’s website and in printed newsletters, plus invitations to special events. Join for an annual membership, donate good/services, or choose to sponsor an event to maximize exposure to a specific audience.

Wish List Fulfillment

Donate yard tools or gently used office equipment to help SVC save on overhead costs. Check out our wish list for specifics. Gift cards to almost anywhere can also be used by the Conservancy or auctioned off to raise usable funds (Amazon, Home Depot, gas stations, Big 5, Lowes, Target, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Starbucks, etc.). If you shop on Amazon, start at smile.amazon.com and designate SVC as your charity, and Amazon will donate every time you shop (at no additional cost to you!).