Trip Finder

Legacy Giving

Leave a Legacy of Outdoor Adventure

Estate planning for nature and outdoor education means your gift keeps working long after it’s made: funding trip scholarships, staff training, and adaptive equipment for the mixed-ability groups we guide every season.

Make it possible for people to find belonging in nature for generations to come with a legacy gift to Wilderness Inquiry. Planned giving for outdoor equity work, whether through a charitable bequest, a beneficiary designation, or an endowment gift, can fund youth outdoor programs and mixed-ability outdoor adventures long after any single year’s trip season. Legacy gifts for youth outdoor programs can fundamentally change who gets to shape the culture and future of the outdoors for decades to come. Join the supporters who’ve chosen to include Wilderness Inquiry in their wills and trusts.

We’d love to hear your plans to make Wilderness Inquiry a part of your legacy giving. Contact Sheila Swift, Development Director, below or call 612-676-9400.

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Helping You Achieve Your Charitable Giving Goals

Wilderness Inquiry has created a partnership with the Saint Paul and Minnesota Community Foundation (SPMCF), an affiliate of the Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, to help us grow our long-term endowment assets and assist our donors with their legacy giving needs. As a nonprofit community foundation, its mission includes working with individuals, families, and nonprofit organizations to make charitable giving thrive and benefit all Minnesotans.

Through our partnership, Wilderness Inquiry is able to utilize their expert staff and many years of experience in helping donors accomplish their philanthropic goals. SPMCF staff provide professional advice on complex gift transactions and can execute deferred gifts, such as charitable gift annuities, for our donors.

Learn more about how a legacy gift can help you achieve your charitable goal for Wilderness Inquiry. Contact Sheila Swift, Development Director, at sheila@wildernessinquiry.org or call 612-676-9400 to get started.

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Common Questions About Legacy Giving

What is Legacy Giving?
Legacy giving, sometimes referred to as planned giving, enables donors to support Wilderness Inquiry, either during their lifetime or after their passing, as part of their overall financial or estate planning. While some legacy gifts provide a life-long income to the donor or loved ones, others use estate and tax planning techniques to provide for charity and other heirs in ways that maximize the gift or minimize its impact on the donor’s estate. This type of charitable giving can be very attractive to both donor and charity, whether a donor uses cash, appreciated securities, real estate, artwork, partnership interests, personal property, life insurance, a retirement plan, etc.
In a world of funding uncertainty, legacy gifts provide essential stability that allows us to plan with confidence. Think of it as our financial anchor. Your gift helps us weather economic storms and guarantees continuous support for core programs, no matter what. Sharing your legacy isn’t just funding one project; it’s investing in our permanence and ensuring we can always be here when we’re needed most. Legacy giving is also a smart, structured way to make a gift to Wilderness Inquiry in a way that works for you. Through many different legacy giving options, you can support our mission while becoming an integral and active part of the Wilderness Inquiry community and making more possible for the young people and families we serve. Legacy gifts also give back; they can provide income for you and your loved ones for life. They allow you to take sizable income, gift, and estate tax deductions and provide favorable capital gains tax treatment. Legacy gifts allow you to leave behind a tradition that fits your philanthropic goals.
During your lifetime, you can make an outright gift of cash, securities, or other property (e.g., real estate, personal property). You also have the option of making a gift that returns lifetime payments to you, your spouse, or other individuals. These life income gifts include charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder unitrusts. You may also include a provision in your will, establishing these gifts for the initial benefit of a loved one and the ultimate benefit of Wilderness Inquiry. You can make a gift through your will, revocable trust, or a distribution from a retirement plan or life insurance policy.
What sort of assets can I use to make a gift?
It depends on the gift:
  • Outright gifts generate a full itemized income-tax charitable deduction. Outright gifts of appreciated securities are deductible at fair market value, with no recognition of capital gains—a great double tax benefit.
  • Gifts of personal property, like art, books and collectibles, are fully deductible so long as they are relevant to Wilderness Inquiry’s mission. Contact us to learn more.
  • Bequests are exempt from estate tax, however they do not generate a lifetime income tax deduction.
  • Similarly, life insurance distributions to Wilderness Inquiry are not income-tax deductible, but are exempt from estate tax. A lifetime gift of an insurance policy to Wilderness Inquiry generates a deduction for the value of the policy or the donor’s basis in the policy, whichever is less.
  • A gift that makes payments to you, such as a charitable gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust, generates a deduction of the fair market value of the gift asset minus the present value of the income interest you retain.
Legacy gifts for youth outdoor programs and endowment gifts for mixed-ability outdoor adventures support the same core work as any donation: guided trips, adaptive equipment, trained guides, and financial aid, but with the stability of a permanent funding source instead of a single year’s gift.
Wilderness Inquiry is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, tax ID: 93-0708637. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Legacy charitable giving involves complex financial and legal considerations. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you consult with a qualified financial planner, tax advisor, or legal professional before making any final decisions. These experts can ensure your philanthropic goals are met while optimizing tax benefits and properly structuring your will or estate plan.
Prefer to mail in your donation? Please send it to:
Wilderness Inquiry 930 E 80th St. Bloomington, MN 55420
Questions? Contact development@wildernessinquiry.org

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