Provides New Retirement, Giving Option for Alumni and Friends
Florida Institute of Technology is pleased to announce the Panther Annuity Program for alumni and friends of the university who wish to combine a charitable contribution with the opportunity for a guaranteed lifelong income. While the Florida Tech annuity program is new for the university, the concept of annuity programs has been around for more than a century.
Here’s how the program works:
- Jane Q. Panther, age 60, makes a $500,000 donation to the Panther Annuity Program. Annuities can be funded with cash, securities or appreciated stock. A gift of appreciated stock has the added benefit to the donor of negating capital gains taxes (see your tax adviser for details).
- She designates the beneficiaries—in this case she and her husband.
- She and her husband receive a 5.3 percent annual rate of return, plus annual tax benefits based on approximately half of the donated amount (see your tax adviser for details).
- In her case, she and her husband would receive $26,500 per year through the end of their lives. This amount would be paid to them however they desired—annually, quarterly or monthly. About half of this income would be tax exempt.
- After she and her husband pass away, the remainder of the annuity, usually about half of the original gift, will be placed in the university endowment.
Beverly Sanders, a director in the Office of Development, said the Panther Annuity Program provides
an ideal retirement option.
“Donors to the program get a real and guaranteed return on their investment, right away,” said Sanders. “The return lasts for a lifetime, and when you consider the tax benefits, the annuity pays back at better than the market rate.
“Donors also get the satisfaction of making a difference in the lives of future generations of Panthers by providing endowed funds.”
Jay Wilson
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| President Anthony J. Catanese publicly thanks Ruth Funk. |
Florida Institute of Technology celebrated its continuing commitment to the arts last fall with the gala opening of the Ruth Funk Textiles Gallery in the university’s Crawford Building. President Anthony J. Catanese made an already enchanted evening more special with the announcement of a $1.25 million gift from Ruth Funk, artist, teacher, arts patron and the gallery’s namesake.
This new donation, along with $250,000 provided by the university, will provide for the creation of the new 10,000-square-foot Ruth Funk Textile Arts Gallery. The new gallery will be built adjacent to Evans Library in the heart of campus.
Comprised of a state-of-the-art exhibition area and an environmentally controlled collection storage space, the gallery will house the Ruth Funk Textile Collection as well as other textile artifacts donated by collectors from around the world.
“Ruth has expanded our humanities programs in ways few of us dared to dream,” said Catanese. “You might say she is helping us to develop our ‘right-brain’ orientation. We know we excel in the logic and analysis of the left-brain mode of thinking, but now Ruth is bringing wholeness to the university.”
Carla Funk (no relation), director of special projects for the Office for Advancement, said the new Crawford Building gallery is already a big hit with students.
“We have students coming by every day, excited by the opportunity to take a break from science and math,” said Carla Funk. “One even told me that he was grateful for the reprieve from calculus class. I know the new gallery will be an even bigger hit.”
The university is working now on the design of the new gallery. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2007. The new Crawford Building Funk Textiles Gallery is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Jay Wilson |
