Gifts and Estate Planning
Ensuring Future Wishes – Planned Gift Opportunities

By creating a carefully tailored planned gift, you can help us carry out our mission of “granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy,” to an even greater extent for generations to come.

There are a multitude of ways to craft your gift to the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc. – satisfying your philanthropic goals while at the same time meeting your financial, tax, and estate planning objectives.  A few examples of the various planned giving vehicles available to you include:

  • A Bequest is one of the easiest ways of making a planned gift to the Foundation. A carefully planned bequest may reduce your estate taxes, thus making additional assets available for your heirs, while also creating a lasting legacy in your name or for someone you wish to honor. Bequests should specifically name us by our legal title: “Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc.” so that your gift will provide wishes for local children in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Delaware.  For more information on bequests click here.
  • A Charitable Gift Annuity (“CGA”) is an uncomplicated type of gift where you transfer cash or marketable securities to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc., and we agree to pay you and/or someone you choose a guaranteed fixed annual income for the rest of your life. At the termination of the contract the principle becomes available for use by the Foundation to grant wishes. Benefits to you may include:
    • A guaranteed annual income for your lifetime
    • An income tax deduction
    • A reduction in capital gains tax if you elect to fund your gift with highly appreciated securities
    • Reduction on gift and estate taxes.
  • A gift of Retirement Plan Assets may be the most tax-burdened assets in your portfolio.  It can be taxed up 80 percent if left to anyone other than your spouse.

    If you are 70 years of age or older, please be sure to ask about Charitable IRA Rollover – new legislation now allows you to make cash gifts totaling up to $100,000 a year from your traditional or Roth IRA to qualified charities without incurring income tax on the withdrawal.

If you decide to include the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc. in your will or estate plans, we would like to welcome you as a member of The Wishmakers Legacy Society, a special group of individuals who believe in our mission and have let us know that they have provided for the Foundation in their estate plans.  For more information on The Wishmakers Legacy Society click here.

If you have any questions, either about your future plans for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc. or the various life income gift options that might be available to you, please call your local Development Office or email our Vice President of Development & Community Relations Ashawnda Fleming at afleming@midatlantic.wish.org.

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Gifts of Stocks or Appreciated Securities

You can make a gift to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc. by using your stocks, bonds or mutual funds.  You can avoid capital gains tax liability, take an income tax deduction for the full amount of your gift, and know that you are helping fulfill the wishes of medially eligible children in our area.

Note: The stock needs to have been held by you for more than 12 months in order to receive the favorable tax benefits.

For Stock Certificates:


If the stock is in certificate form, please mail the certificate and a completed stock power form (available from us or your local bank) in SEPARATE envelopes to the address below.  Please send the certificates by registered mail with a return receipt requested.

To: Jerry Luna
Vice President of Finance and Administration
The Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc.
5272 River Road, Suite 700
Bethesda, Maryland 20816
P: 301.962.9474