If you are planning ahead for your estate, it’s possible to pass on assets to your loved ones as well as charity. Read on to learn more about the best ways to gift with charity in mind.

In order to do this successfully, you might weigh the tax benefits of giving against the needs of the beneficiaries inside the estate. Lifetime giving allows for a deduction up to a percentage of adjusted gross income. Appreciating securities not only provide that deduction but also help to avoid capital gains taxation, which can be costly.

Donor-advised giving programs can also be set up through financial institutions. If so motivated to maintain control and administration over the giving, you could also create a private foundation for this goal. 

There are two strategies involved in the creation of trusts. First, a charitable lead trust makes payments to charities, and, upon death, to the owner’s beneficiaries. A charitable remainder trust, however, actually works in reverse. Payments are made to individual and his/her beneficiaries until death, with the rest being given to charity. The gifting of retirement assets reduces estate taxation, allowing the receiving charity to avoid income tax on the gifts.