How to Donate Stock

With the stock market regularly breaking records at the closing bell, many of your investments are likely worth more today than what you originally paid for them.

Time to sell? If you do, you might have to pay capital gains taxes. There’s a better option that provides you with valuable tax incentives as well as the satisfaction of supporting a cause close to your heart: Give your stock to Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.

When you give appreciated securities that you've owned for more than one year, you will receive two federal income tax benefits:

  1. You will be entitled to a charitable gift deduction based on the current fair market value of the securities, regardless of their lower original cost.
  2. You will be exempt from paying capital gains taxes on any increase in value–taxes you would pay if you sold the stock.

Reap the Rewards

To realize full tax benefits from your gift, keep the following IRS guidelines in mind:

  • Donate long-term appreciated property. For short-term assets (owned one year or less), only the amount you originally paid is deductible.
  • Watch the ceiling. The gift deduction for long-term capital gain property is limited to 30 percent of your adjusted gross income in the year of your gift, but the excess is deductible over the next five years.

Direct your gift to an area or program at the medical school that means the most to you

  • Your gift can support our annual funds, including scholarships, research, teaching, student travel, or other student activities—or you can choose to fund the school’s highest priorities with a gift to the Dean’s Fund.
  • With a gift of $50,000 or more, you can establish an endowed or current use fund in support of an identified educational or research need at the medical school.
  • With a gift of at least $10,000, you can create an income-generating annuity for your lifetime, or provide a life income for both you and a selected beneficiary. Ultimately, the balance of the annuity will benefit a priority of your choice at the medical school.

If you are considering a 2020 year-end stock gift to the medical school, please keep in mind that transfers often require several days, and should be initiated before December 25, 2020.

To learn more, please visit our giving pages or e-mail Amanda Bassett (603-653-0755).

All gifts of stocks and securities are processed through Dartmouth College. To initiate your gift of stocks or securities, please contact:

Barbara Ibey
Senior Investment Operations Manager
Dartmouth College
12 South Street, Suite 1
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-3201
barbara.ibey@dartmouth.edu
security.gift.processing@dartmouth.edu