Born in Zimbabwe and raised in China, Diane Zhao had no network to rely upon when she moved to the United States. “I had to figure out on my own what I wanted for my future,” she says. She hoped to come to Yale, where she could pursue her MD and her MBA, preparing her to address health inequities from a systemic perspective. A scholarship made that possible. “When alumni support student aid, they are helping create more diversity in medicine,” she says.
Planned Giving
Planned Giving at Yale School of Medicine
The Yale System taught you to think outside the box, explore, and search for a better way.
That is one reason why so many alumni choose planned giving as a vehicle to support Yale School of Medicine (YSM). You can simultaneously grow and protect assets, provide for your family, and create a legacy of support for continued excellence at this unique institution where your own career began.
Donors are very much like students. They come with their own strengths and their own passions. The best results come when the individual is free to make their own path rather than conform to a one- size-fits-all design. When the time comes to give back, YSM staff can work with you to craft a plan that meets your personal goals. When you do, you can:
- Leave a meaningful legacy.
- Secure an income stream for yourself or a loved one.
- Save on income and estate taxes.
- Enjoy peace of mind when you collaborate with Yale’s sound financial management team.
- Advance YSM’s mission of training leaders in medicine and biomedical research.
THE PHYSICIANS, SCIENTISTS, AND HEALTH CARE LEADERS THE WORLD NEEDS TODAY AND TOMORROW
Every md class at ysm writes its own Physician’s Oath, using Hippocrates, Maimonides, and other sources as its starting point.
Alumni of YSM’s residency and fellowship training programs also chart their own paths in health care and research, inspired by the mentors who innovated before them. As one of the first programs to train physician associates (PAs), Yale shaped the profession, and Yale PAs go on to be leaders in their fields and in health care more widely.
The world in which YSM alumni will provide clinical care and advance science is unique to their era, at times unimaginable to the generations that came before. Nevertheless, we know that Yale-trained clinicians will be exactly what their time needs, precisely because they were prepared to think rigorously and independently.
It is critical that extraordinary students benefit from a Yale education regardless of their ability to pay for it. They should have the freedom to work side by side with renowned faculty who have the time and the facilities to be mentors. They should matriculate in an atmosphere of discovery, where they see that healthcare does not and should not stand still.
That is why alumni give to Yale. They know, better than anyone, what a foundation YSM provides for impactful careers and adventurous lives. That is why the commitment of YSM alumni has always been so deep— and why they never stop exploring new ways to give.
Charitable Gift Annuities
Charitable gift annuities (CGAs) are among the most popular ways to give to YSM. Who doesn’t love a gift that pays you back?
- Secure, predictable fixed payments for you or a loved one.
- IRS charitable deduction is available.
- Favorable reporting of capital gains.
You contribute cash or marketable securities in exchange for Yale’s promise to pay you and, if you wish, your spouse or another annuitant a fixed income for life.
If you transfer appreciated securities, the payment of capital gains tax may be spread over your life expectancy.
The annuity rate is based in part on your age at the time you begin receiving payments. As a donor, you may qualify for an income tax deduction in the year you make your gift. In most cases, you will receive a portion of your annuity payments tax-free.
You may choose to delay the start of your annuity payments for some period of time. The longer the deferral period, the higher the rate you will receive.
New: CGAs just became even more attractive. They can now be funded by a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA, in some cases. One-time funding of up to $53,000 may be possible.
Bequests
Make a lasting difference at YSM while managing your assets and meeting your family’s financial need during your lifetime.
- Bequests can be cash, securities, or other property.
- Designate a specific amount, a particular asset, or a fixed percentage to Yale.
- Leave all or a portion of your residuary estate to YSM.
You can make Yale a beneficiary of your Independent Retirement Account, life insurance or other financial product.
A variety of assets—real estate, art and more—may be considered in making a bequest to support YSM.
Private Equity
Gifts of privately held stock, limited partnership interests, or other types of business interests can be great tax and estate planning tools.
- With proper planning, the gift can offset a tax recognition event such as a sale or IPO.
- Yale can apply any dividends or sale proceeds of the business interest to the purposes you wish to support.
- Lifetime income may be possible with the creation of a charitable remainder trust.
Donor Advised Funds
A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) managed by Yale is a simple, cost-effective way to manage your giving.
- Invested as part of the Yale Endowment, historically one of the top-performing institutional funds.
- Minimum initial gift is $5 million. At least half must be designated for purposes at Yale.
Startup Entrepreneurs
Join a unique community of entrepreneurs and leaders.
If you are an entrepreneur who wishes to give back to Yale in the future, consider becoming a member of Founders Pledge at YSM/YSPH.
Learn more at Founders Pledge
Real Estate
The upside to downsizing.
- Donate a primary or vacation home or undeveloped property to Yale.
- Generate tax deductions.
- Save on capital gains.
- Create a lifetime income stream.
Charitable Remainder Trusts
Lifetime income now and support for YSM later.
- Immediate tax deduction.
- Lifetime income.
- No up-front capital gains tax.
Donor Impact
Mac Griffiss, MD credits his thesis advisor, Lewis Levy, for helping to launch his career as a physician scientist. Combining an outright gift with a bequest allowed him to create a research fund in Dr. Levy’s honor that will support students and their faculty mentors in perpetuity.
After a childhood spent riding horseback along the Tennessee River, J. McLeod “Mac” Griffiss, MD ’66, decided that he wanted to be a farmer, he recalls in a gentle drawl.
When he informed his father of this decision, the elder Griffiss replied, “You’d better go to medical school, because it’s the only way you can afford to be a farmer.” The poetic young man who loved William Faulkner and the very dirt of the family farm never did turn his hand to the plow.
Yale had changed him too much. The Yale System’s emphasis on inquiry and his experience in the lab of his mentor, the late Lewis Levy, MD, made him a scientist and led to a career as an infectious disease investigator, a professor at Harvard, Hopkins, and UCSF, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and inventor. He has also been an active member in the Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine and is currently its president. In that role, he frequently talks with alumni about giving to YSM. The pitch is always the same: “The most important thing is to ask yourself,” he says, “is how Yale has benefited you throughout your career.”
Asking that question of himself made him determined to support the student thesis process. “It’s a foundational experience that gets you thinking like a scientist and doing science. It separates Yale from other medical schools,” Dr. Griffiss says. When he made a gift establishing the Lewis Levy, MD, Student Thesis Research Fund in 2002, it was important to him that funding go to both students and mentors. This is payback for all the time and resources Dr. Levy devoted to his students. The fund will grow eventually through a bequest in his will.
“It’s nice to make a gift like that while you are alive,” he says. “It gives me an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the gift immediately and it also gives me an opportunity to see how the school uses that gift. I understand that my wishes are being carried out, and the bequest ensures that will continue for generations to come.”
Before becoming a medical student, Shadrack Osei Frimpong had already started a nonprofit, Cocoa 360, to improve health and education in rural communities in Ghana, where he was born. He had also earned master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from Yale and Cambridge, respectively. Still, he was set on becoming a physician and training other Ghanaians to meet the country’s need for doctors. Financial aid was important; without it he would have had to work for several more years to save up tuition money. “Yale is an extraordinary school that has been generous to me,” he said. “Now I will be practicing and saving lives sooner.”
IRAs
Make Yale a Beneficiary
- Flexible, revocable.
- Not restricted by age.
- Retain control of your assets.
- Minimize taxes.
OR
Make a Qualified Charitable Distribution IRA owners who are 70½ years or older may transfer up to $105,000 annually to a nonprofit, tax-free.
- May count toward the Required Minimum Distribution for people 73 years and older.
- Each spouse may make a $105,000 QCD.
- Can make a one-time election to fund a CGA.
Joseph Walter, MD ’67, considers himself very fortunate. In paying it forward, he established a scholarship for medical and PA students who are veterans.
Carol Teitz, MD ’74, retired years ago, but she is still answering questions from former patients.