Buffalo City Mission : Financial Support

Your financial gifts allow Buffalo City Mission to offer uninterrupted relief services and recovery programs to homeless and often desperate men, women and children. Here are simple ways you can give to help restore hope, dignity and lives to those in need:

You can make an online gift through your debit or credit card. Click here to donate now!

Gifts of cash

Send a cash contribution of any amount to Buffalo City Mission, P.O. Box 496, Buffalo, NY 14205. If you’d like, send your gift in memory or honor of a friend or loved one. We’ll send a note to the family of the deceased or to the honoree letting them know of your gift.

Automatic Monthly Giving—The Simple Giving Plan

You can make regular contributions to Buffalo City Mission even easier through the electronic transfer of funds from your bank. Each month, on a specified day, your donation is automatically deducted from your account and directed to Buffalo City Mission. Safe, efficient, convenient! And it saves the Mission money so your donations go even further to help those in need.

To start, download The Simple Giving Plan authorization and follow the four easy steps! For more information, please call Rod Sargeant at (716) 854-8181, ext. 410.

Billy Sunday Club

Make an impact on the lives of the homeless when you become one of Buffalo City Mission’s Billy Sunday Club members. This club is especially important to the Mission because it bears the name of our founder Billy Sunday. Sunday was a professional baseball player turned evangelist who preached to every level of society—from doctors to farmers, criminals, society women, alcoholics and bums. During an eight-week crusade in 1917, Sunday raised $8,400 that he gave to a group of pastors to start a rescue mission in Buffalo, New York.

Today, Buffalo City Mission is still carrying on Sunday's crusade. Each year we provide more than 140,000 meals and 65,000 nights of lodging to the homeless and destitute in Buffalo and Western New York. Billy Sunday Club members help make this possible.

This special group of donors pledges to make a monthly contribution of choice and provides a much-needed financial base for our ministry. Billy Sunday Club members can also take advantage of The Simple Giving Plan above to make ongoing giving easier than ever.

Matching corporate gifts

Over the years, generous companies and foundations have partnered with their employees to support Buffalo City Mission through “matching gift programs.” Some employers match charitable gifts dollar for dollar, while others make contributions based on employees’ volunteer hours.

Does your company have a matching gift program? We encourage you to find out so you can multiply the value of your volunteer hours and your gifts to Buffalo City Mission.

Planned gifts: your legacy to others

Since its founding in 1917, Buffalo City Mission has served the poor and homeless as a conduit of generosity from people throughout Western New York. Today, new opportunities exist to demonstrate your compassion for the needy and to make strong, informed choices about your assets and desires for the future. These opportunities come under the banner of planned giving.

Making a planned gift says a lot about your values and your commitment to those values. Giving beyond your lifetime sends a strong message to your loved ones and peers.

For more information about including Buffalo City Mission in your estate plans, read on. Or, you may contact Executive Director Tom McLaughlin at (716) 854-8181, ext. 403.

• Gifts of Cash
Made during your lifetime, cash gifts can be deducted up to 50 percent of adjusted gross income.

• Bequest through Will
You can make a bequest to Buffalo City Mission of a dollar amount, specific property, a percentage of your estate or the remainder of your estate after taking care of your loved ones.

• Gift of Life Insurance
Making the Mission a beneficiary of part or all of a life insurance policy is a simple way to make a significant gift! You may receive a tax deduction for the cash surrender value reducing your tax liability in the year of the gift.

• Retirement Account
You may realize significant estate tax savings when you designate Buffalo City Mission as a beneficiary. This is often the most tax-efficient way to make an estate gift.

• Gifts of Appreciated Stock, Bonds or Mutual Funds
Appreciated stock, held more than one year, makes an excellent charitable gift. You avoid all capital gains taxes, receive a tax deduction for the full value of the gift and can deduct up to 30 percent of your adjusted gross income. Bonds and mutual funds are similar to appreciated stock in the tax treatment. State, municipal and U.S. government bonds are welcome.

• Life Estate in Home
Like cash, gifts of property can be simple to make. However, due to some special tax considerations and the possible impact on our operations, check with our executive director before giving property valued at $500 or more. Making a gift of your house or farm to Buffalo City Mission has definite estate tax advantages, and often you can continue to live in the family home the rest of your life.

• Charitable Remainder Trust
You can select the rate of return from these income arrangements and also choose a fixed or fluctuating annual payment. Capital gains taxes can be avoided and you receive a tax deduction based on the age of the income recipient and the rate of return.

• Charitable Lead Trust
Assets (cash or securities) are transferred to a trust that pays income from the fund at Buffalo City Mission for a number of years you determine. At the time period’s end, the trust terminates and the assets are given back to the person(s) you name. The income tax deduction is for payments made annually to the Mission.

• Endowing Your Gift
Throughout your adult life, you may have chosen to make specific gifts each year to your favorite nonprofits. After your death, these charities can no longer depend on that regular income. That’s why we encourage you to consider endowing your gift. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say your average annual gift to Buffalo City Mission is $250. If you gave a $5,000 life insurance policy or included a bequest in your will for $5,000 to the Mission, upon your death the Mission would receive the $5,000 and invest it. Assuming it could earn 5% per year, your gift would “endow” an annual stream of income of $250 — just enough to replace the annual support you’ve been providing! Here are more examples:

Current Annual Support
$125
$250
$500
$1,000
$2,500
$5,000
$10,000

Estate Gift
Required
$2,500
$5,000
$10,000
$20,000
$50,000
$100,000
$200,000

New Federal Law for 2006 and 2007

August 17, President Bush signed into law a pension reform bill that includes several giving incentives, including the IRA rollover provision. The new federal law allows owners of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to give from their retirement savings directly to charitable organizations like Buffalo City Mission, without first counting it as income and paying income tax.

For tax years 2006 and 2007, holders of traditional and Roth IRAs who are at least 70-1/2 years old can make direct charitable transfers up to $100,000 per year. By going directly to charity, the money in not included in the IRA owner’s income and—most importantly—is not taxed, preserving the full amount for charitable purposes.

For more information, please call Executive Director Tom McLaughlin, (716) 854-8181, ext. 403, or visit your financial or tax advisor.