Providing financial support to ROI can be rewarding in many ways.

Currently, ROI raises funds for two purposes: to support the Independence Fund, which provides medication, prosthetics, and community integration opportunities to the people we serve; and the ROI Endowment, a fund managed by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation that helps ensure ROI’s continued existence and growth for the future.

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Monetary Gifts

Cash donations can be made using a variety of methods, many of which multiply the value of the donation to ROI while providing benefits to the donor. Below are just a few of the ways in which your donation can accomplish both task at once, and many of these option can be combined. (Ideas presented below are examples only; not every option will be right for every donor. ROI strongly encourages prospective donors to consult a professional financial planner before committing to any major donation.)

Donate Online
Perhaps the easiest way to make a one-time contribution - using either a credit card or direct bank debit - is an online donation via PayPal:

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Charitable Remainder Trust
A charitable remainder trust allows a philanthropist to donate to ROI while providing an income for himself, another person, another charity, or another trust (the beneficiary). In this type of fund, principle is put into an income-generating trust. A percentage of the trust’s assets are paid to the beneficiary on a regular basis. When the beneficiary dies or a set time limit is reached, the funds remaining in the trust are given to ROI. There are many variations of this kind of trust, and there are generally considerable tax benefits to this type of plan.

This plan might be used by someone who has a relative with a need for a perpetual source of income after the donor has died, or someone who has a parent in a nursing home who wishes to provide a steady income for that parent while she is alive and fund a significant memorial in her memory after she is gone.

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Charitable Lead Trust
A charitable lead trust is similar to a charitable remainder trust. The main difference is that ROI is the beneficiary of the income, and the remainder of the trust is given to the trust’s recipient at the end of specific period of time. The tax benefits are not typically as dramatic as those of a charitable remainder trust, but are still considerable under most circumstances.

This type of trust is useful for someone who wishes to give her child or grandchild a large cash gift at a future date, and help fund ROI in the interim. For instance, a woman may want her grandchild to work his way through college but then have a "nest egg" to use once he graduates. To accomplish this, she could set up a charitable lead trust that would pay all generated income to ROI until her grandson reached 23 years of age, at which time the remaining funds in the trust would go to her grandson. Not only has she provided for both her grandson and ROI, but she has ensured that the money will be go where it was intended even if she should not live long enough to give her grandson receive the gift herself.

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Bequests (Gifts from Wills and Estates)
Another way in which ROI can be the recipient of your support is through a gift in your will. Bequests of this manner allow a person to make a much larger contribution to ROI that was typically possible during his life. Under some circumstances, they can also reduce the tax burden of the other recipients of the estate. Bequests to ROI can be as specific sums, a percentage of the estate, or the residue of the estate. In any case, this option allows you to leave a legacy and make a donation to ROI that you may have wished you could afford during the course of your life.

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Gifts of Life Insurance
Many people have purchased life insurance policies for a specific reason, and then outlived that original purpose. For instance, someone may have purchased a policy to provide for her husband if she were to die, then outlived her husband. Or, she may have purchased a policy to provide for her children, who have since become successful and would no longer receive great benefit from the policy. In many of these circumstances, naming ROI as the recipient of the policy is an excellent way to make a gift with little effort on the part of the donor.

Naming ROI as the irrevocable owner and beneficiary of a life insurance policy also brings with it a substantial income tax deduction, and, like the gift of a bequest, allows you to give a much larger gift than you have been able to afford during your life.

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Donating Goods

There are a great number of ways in which philanthropists can donate to either of ROI’s fundraising efforts. Although cash is usually the first thing that comes to mind when people hear the word "donation", ROI can use donations of almost any type.

Many donations — such as donations of cars, clothing, furniture, wheelchairs, and land— can be used directly by ROI or the people we serve. And, even if ROI cannot use donated items directly, partnerships with Midwest Business Exchange (MBE) and similar organizations allow us to convert donated items that we cannot use directly to cash.

All donations are, of course, tax deductible, making donations of excess inventory an extremely attractive option for businesses. No matter who you are or what you give, donations to ROI provide important resources for us and the people we serve.

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Other Forms of Giving

The number of donation methods are almost as great as the number of potential donors. For information on which method of donation works the best for you, contact your financial planning professional, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, or ROI Development Director Doug Thompson. No matter how you give to ROI, you’ll know the your donation will be used responsibly and have a great impact on the lives of people in the community.

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