Annual Support
It might surprise you that tuition alone does not fund the college experience. OBU’s Annual Fund plays a critical role in keeping tuition costs down. It makes up the difference between the total cost of educating the student and what the student actually pays.
This is where our alumni, friends and OBU family directly impact the lives of our students by bridging the gap and providing the foundation that supports the academic, social, and spiritual growth that occurs on Bison Hill. The Annual Fund meets the scholarship needs, the classroom needs, and the everyday needs that enhance the student experience.
Your participation and support in this vital avenue of giving adds tremendous value to our students’ college journey.
Endowed Gifts to OBU
Scholarships: An endowed scholarship requires a minimum corpus of $10,000. Earnings from the corpus provide for an annual scholarship award. Scholarships can be awarded based on a variety of factors (academic disciplines, geographic area, financial need, etc.)
Lectureship: The lectureship is a temporary appointment, usually given to a visiting scholar or speaker during a select visit to OBU. The endowment required for a named lectureship is $50,000. These lectureships can address certain academic disciplines, subject matters or other areas of academic thought/discussion.
Professorship: The endowed professorship is a partially-funded post which is awarded to a professor who is prominent in his or her field, an outstanding teacher, and one who has demonstrated exceptional ability in the selected academic discipline. The endowed academic professorship can be endowed for $250,000 and named for or by the donor. The endowment will be used to enhance salary, benefits, and certain expenses, such as travel, research, or secretarial assistance.
Chair: The endowed chair is similar to the endowed professorship in terms of the assistance provided, except that it is the highest funded endowed post. The faculty member holding this position is considered to be one of the most distinguished faculty members on the University campus. This position can be endowed for $500,000.
Appreciated Securities
Did you know that using appreciated securities to make your gift delivers more tax benefits to you than using cash? Use appreciated securities for your gift. A $5,000 cash gift and a gift of $5,000 in appreciated securities both generate the same charitable deduction. But if you use publicly-traded stocks or bonds to make your gift, you will receive an additional tax benefit: the IRS allows you to make your transfer to Oklahoma Baptist University without recognizing capital gains on the appreciation. You can thus leverage a larger donation than you could make with cash -- and receive a larger tax deduction -- by "buying low and giving high." Your gift of securities is valued as of the day it reaches our account if your broker transfers them electronically, or the postmark date if you mail the shares. Your gift value is the average of the high and the low prices for the securities on that date.
Did you know that appreciated assets may bring more benefit to us than to you? Use Appreciated Assets for your gift. Stocks and bonds are not the only forms of appreciated property that receive favorable tax treatment when they are donated to Oklahoma Baptist University. The IRS also allows donors of appreciated real estate, business interests, and artwork to contribute them and receive a deduction based on their full market value. These gifts do raise more tax and acceptance issues than contributions of publicly-traded securities, and we ask our friends who may be considering such a gift to contact our office first.
Gifts of Real Estate
Oklahoma Baptist University is happy to consider gifts of both residential and commercial real estate. We gratefully review each offer in conjunction with our financial officers, who evaluate the condition and marketability of all proposed acquisitions of property and have the final say on acceptance. Real estate may be given to us outright or be used to fund a life-income gift such as a unitrust. It may also be transferred through a part-sale/part-gift arrangement (a charitable bargain sale), or a donor may give her home to us and reserve the right to continue to live there (a retained life estate).
Gifts of Business Interests
You can give Oklahoma Baptist University investment partnership shares or closely-held stock, as an outright transfer or to fund a life-income gift. Such a gift should be carefully reviewed by your legal and tax counsel first, and we will also assess it before we proceed.
Gifts of Artwork
Oklahoma Baptist University is receptive to gifts of books, artwork and collectibles that meet these requirements: (1) The donated pieces must be related to our mission, and (2) You must secure an appraisal of the pieces, conducted by an independent appraiser who was not originally involved in selling the pieces to you. We can assist you in following IRS-required procedures for this appraisal.
A Retirement Account
The balance remaining in your retirement account after your death is subject to double taxation if it passes to your heirs: it's taxed both as income and as an estate asset. Result? Over 75% of the account value may go to taxes. It's a better plan to designate the remainder of your account to us, and then use other assets for gifts to your family. New regulations simplify the procedure of naming a charity as beneficiary, and we are ready to help you plan this gift.
Appreciated Assets
You may be holding a book collection or some artwork that you no longer wish to maintain. However, did you know these assets could bring real benefit to us? There are particular IRS requirements to meet before you can deduct a gift of appreciated assets. And, we will review each gift proposal carefully to make sure that we can put the asset to good use.
Business Interests
A partnership, an interest in a business, shares of closely held stock, or a limited partnership share may all hold value for OBU. We'll review the proposed gift, and if we agree, we will work with you and your advisors to make the transfer simple.
Benefits of Giving to OBU
Give now or give later?
A significant outright gift to OBU will allow us to meet immediate objectives. In turn, it will give you maximum tax benefits, which is especially attractive if you are in high earnings years. It can also be the simplest gift to arrange.
However, you may prefer to leave your assets and cash flow alone until your death, and instead make your gift through your estate. Even though we cannot use this gift immediately, it will be critically important to our long-term financial strength and help ensure our ability to meet the opportunities and challenges the future will present us.
To make a gift from your estate, you use a will or revocable trust. You may also use life insurance or the balance remaining in your retirement plan. These gifts help you keep your lifetime financial planning flexible, although they provide only limited income tax benefits. You will need professional assistance to set up most estate-plan gifts.
How can a gift pay you back?
Your gift to OBU does not have to be made outright, because we offer options for plans that will provide you income in return for your contribution. You can receive fixed or variable income, take payments for your lifetime or for a term of years, and direct the income to beneficiaries other than yourself. In essence, you make a contribution to us, yet retain benefits from what you contributed.
Your charitable deduction is based on the full market value of the assets you gave, minus the present value of the income interest you retained. The higher the income payout, the lower the deduction. These flexible, creative gifts address a variety of your planning objectives.
For OBU, the return of income allows you to consider a more substantial gift to us than you might be able to afford in an outright format. Even though we cannot use these gifts until the death of the last income beneficiary, they give us long-term financial strength that will sustain us in the future.