Giving Options

About Your Donation

Private support of the Sons of Italy Foundation® (SIF) is vital to its success. To assist donors, the SIF provides a full range of donation options.

For donations to the SIF’s national charities, 85% of all donations received go directly to the charity. All are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by federal law.

All gifts to the SIF are evaluated regularly by the Board of Trustees and an independent auditor. Full fiduciary responsibility for the management of donor accounts and distribution of funds to beneficiaries is administered by SIF staff and a professional team of advisors, including accountants, attorneys and certified financial managers.

For More Information

Please contact the National Office for more information or to make an endowment, legacy or other major gift.

202.547.2900 | sif@osia.org

How to Make a Donation

Donations to the Sons of Italy Foundation® may be made safely and securely online, over the phone with a credit card, or by mail to:

Sons of Italy Foundation
219 E Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002

Gift Designations

When you make a gift to the Sons of Italy Foundation® (SIF), you have flexibility in determining how the funds will be used.

Unrestricted Gifts

Unrestricted gifts, large or small, are among the most valuable to the SIF because they allow us to allocate funds wherever the need is greatest, and to take advantage of unique funding opportunities as they arise.

Directed Gifts

Directed gifts allow you to designate your donation to a specific SIF program, or to an endowment you may establish. When you make a directed gift to the SIF, you enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting a program that is personally meaningful to you. Please see the list of current campaigns for which the SIF is accepting donations.

Giving Options

Outright Gifts

When you make an outright gift to the Sons of Italy Foundation® (SIF), your contribution can be put to work immediately, providing funding for current programs. An outright gift may be composed of almost any asset of value.

• Cash gifts, the easiest gift to make, may be made online, by phone or by mail, using a credit/debit card or a personal or business check made payable to the SIF.
• Gifts of appreciated securities, stocks, and bonds may also provide tax advantages when transferred to the SIF before they are sold. In some instances, donation of securities may provide a twofold tax benefit, creating an income-tax deduction as well as eliminating the capital-gains tax that would have been due on their sale. If you own securities that have declined in value, you may wish to sell them and donate the proceeds to the SIF. In this way, you establish a loss on the securities for tax purposes and claim a deduction for a charitable contribution. It is recommended you consult your financial advisors for more information on tax advantages for donation of securities. Kindly contact the National Office if you wish to make a gift of this nature.
• Gifts of real estate and other property may provide multiple benefits. You can possibly avoid capital gains tax and claim a charitable deduction of the full fair market value of the property. Kindly contact the National Office prior to making a gift of this nature.

Recurring Gifts

Making recurring monthly gifts is an easy way to provide support that ensures ongoing reliable funding for our programs. Through a regular monthly commitment of any amount, you can support any or all of the SIF’s programs/charities, or let the SIF apply your gift where it is needed most.

Recurring giving is automatic. Once you sign up, your donation is automatically charged to your credit card on the same day each month. You do not need to do anything more. You may continue making monthly donations as long as you wish. If the need arises to change the credit card to which your monthly donations are charged, to change your donation amount, or to suspend making a gift altogether, contact the National Office and your request will be immediately processed.

Supporters who contribute $10 or more for 3 consecutive months will become members of the Sons of Italy Sustaining Patrons Circle and recognized in the Sustaining Patrons Circle Honor Roll in multimedia publications. Please see the Sustaining Patrons Circle section for more information about the program and recurring giving.

Memorial / Tribute Gifts

Honor a loved one’s memory with a memorial gift or celebrate a loved one’s special occasion by making a tribute gift.

Whether you are fulfilling a family member’s wish to support the Sons and Daughters of Italy or surprising a friend with a gift that truly embraces the meaning of giving, a donation to the Sons of Italy Foundation is an easy and meaningful way to do good while honoring someone special.

Memorial gifts may be made in honor of someone who has passed away. If you wish, a gift notification may be sent to a person you designate.

Tribute gifts may be made for any occasion – or no occasion at all! Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, even Christmas, are all perfect opportunities to make a tribute gift to someone who is proud of his or her Italian heritage, is charitable…or simply has it all. The person you are honoring will be notified of your gift if you wish.

Memorial and Tribute gifts are quick and easy when made online and the recipient or designee can be notified by e-card (fastest method) or by mail*.

Not comfortable making this gift online? Complete and return the Memorial/Tribute Gift form to make your donation.

*Please allow up to 5 days for e-card notifications to be sent, and at least 7 days for mail notifications to be sent. If you are making your gift through the mail, rather than online, please note that processing the gift and notifications may take longer.

Gift Pledges

The Sons of Italy Foundation® welcomes your gift through a pledge – a formal statement of intention to make a gift to the SIF.

With a pledge, you may complete your gift by making regular payments over time, allowing yourself to give more generously than you originally may have considered. Each payment on your pledge is eligible for an income-tax deduction in the tax year in which it is made.

Please contact the National Office if you would like to make a pledge to the SIF.

Endowments

Endowments provide security over the long term by expanding the SIF’s permanent financial base and creating a predictable source of future income for such things as scholarships or other specific programs. The principal donation remains untouched.

Please contact the National Office if you would like to establish an endowment.

Legacy Gifts / Planned Giving

Considering philanthropy in your estate planning is an excellent way to make an impact on a cause that is meaningful to you, while planning for your future and that of your loved ones.

There are multiple ways you can include the SIF in your estate planning:

• Designate the SIF a beneficiary of some or all of your estate. Gift options include but are not limited to Wills, Living Trusts, IRAs and Life Insurance policies. View/print a brochure about will and trust legacy bequests to the SIF
• Make estate gifts to the SIF during your lifetime (often decreasing the tax responsibility placed upon your heirs). Gift options include but are not limited to substantial outright gifts of cash, securities or real estate, and Charitable Trusts.

Whichever option you decide, you are choosing to help the SIF in a very significant way.

As with any major financial decision, it is recommended you consult your financial planner, attorney and/or other advisors prior to establishing a legacy gift / planned giving to determine what options are available and best suited to your needs.

Please contact the Legacy Giving Department at 202.547.2900 or by email for more information, to establish a legacy gift, or if you wish to establish a legacy gift of a type not mentioned below.

Bequests (Wills & Living Trusts)

Bequests allow you to leave money to the SIF, and are accomplished through an executed Will or Living Trust. Substantial gifts can be made without affecting your family’s current security. The amount and the ultimate use of the funds may be designated by you or left to the discretion of the SIF.

IRAs & Other Tax Advantage Retirement Plans

Payments from IRAs to individual beneficiaries generally are reduced by various taxes (estate, federal and state income taxes), leaving your beneficiaries in some cases with very little of the initial value. By designating the SIF as the beneficiary of your IRA (or other retirement plan), the SIF will have the use of 100% of the proceeds.

Life Insurance

You may name the SIF as the beneficiary of any Life Insurance policy. You make all the premium payments, retain ownership of the policy, and have full access to the cash value. You may also name the SIF as the owner of an insurance policy.

Matching-Gift Programs

A simple way to increase your donation to Sons of Italy Foundation® is to find out if your company has a matching-gift program.

Such programs typically match a percentage or sometimes all employee contributions to charitable organizations, making the employer a partner in their employees’ personal philanthropy.

To institute a matching gift:

• Obtain a matching-gift form from your employer, complete it, and provide it to the SIF with your contribution.
• In some cases, a matching gift request must be made to your employer after you make your donation to the SIF. Kindly contact the National Office at the time you make your donation if you plan to request a matching gift.

Other Ways to Help

There are other ways you can help the SIF fulfill its mission:

• In-Kind Items and Services: Occasionally, the SIF will accept in-kind gifts of items or services to be used in association with special events or other fund-raising campaigns. Kindly contact the National Office prior to making a gift of this nature to determine if a current need exists.
• Stay in Touch & Informed: Occasionally special campaigns for funding from corporate donors arise that involve only your participation, such as a social media contest. Follow the SIF on Facebook or Twitter, subscribe to email updates, and check the OSIA.org homepage regularly to see if a special campaign is taking place, and then join in to help the SIF earn a grant.
• iGive.com Online Shopping:
  
  Do your online shopping through iGive.com. Hundreds of stores – large and small, national and regional, online and brick and mortar – participate in iGive.com and make a donation directly to the SIF as a reward for your business. You’ll recognize many of the retailers on the store list, including travel discount sites, and some of your favorites may be there too.
  iGive.com is easy and free to use, costing nothing other than what you purchase online. And iGive.com promises you’ll never pay more to shop through the iGive.com service than you would with standard online shopping. Learn more about iGive.com.
• eBay Giving Works:
  
  When you sell or buy items on eBay, you can choose to support the SIF through eBay Giving Works. Donate a percentage of an item’s sale price, buy an item that’s sold to benefit the SIF, or add a donation at checkout. (Please note: While the SIF accepts donations through eBay Giving Works, which is powered by “PayPal Giving Fund,” the SIF currently does not accept donations made as payments directly via PayPal.com.)
• AmazonSmile:
  
• Is the same Amazon.com you know – the same products, the same prices, the same service – and the new way to buy from Amazon while earning donations to the Sons of Italy Foundation. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile.com purchases to the SIF. You must shop on AmazonSmile with your existing Amazon.com login (or sign up for a new login) to earn the donation.
• Loyalty Rewards Conversion: Some retailers that offer rewards programs will allow customers to convert those rewards to monetary donations to charitable organizations. Programs vary, so please check with your rewards program to find out what options are available. In addition, some organizations serve as a platform to help with the conversion. If you use Kula, please remember to choose the SIF as your cause.
• Third-party Fund-Raising/Crowdsourcing Sites: The SIF appreciates all the ways donors choose to offer their support. When considering a cash gift, particularly one to be made online with a credit card, the SIF highly recommends making a donation directly through the SIF’s secure online form. Doing so ensures security and that the entire donation is made directly to the SIF immediately. The SIF cannot be accountable for the security of donations made through third-party sites, and sometimes the SIF will not receive the donor’s full donation (due to the third-party site’s administrative fees). For donors who still prefer to make gifts through a third-party, the SIF has a presence on Razoo. (Please note: While the SIF also accepts donations through eBay Giving Works, which is powered by “PayPal Giving Fund,” the SIF currently does not accept donations made as payments directly via PayPal.com.)