Donations

What is a Qualified Charitable Distribution?

A qualified charitable distribution (QCD) is a distribution of funds from your IRA directly to a qualified charitable organization, such as the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery. Because the gift goes directly to the charity without passing through your hands, the dollar amount of the gift may be excluded from your taxable income up to a maximum of $100,000 annually. The gift itself can satisfy all or part of your required distribution and create tax benefits, even if you do not itemize your deductions. Keeping your taxable income lower may also help reduce the impact to certain tax credits and deductions, including Social Security and Medicare. This is a Win-Win for all concerned!

• You can make charitable gifts directly from your IRA with pre-tax dollars.
• The gift amount is excluded from your taxable income.
• The gift amount can be applied towards your annual Required Minimum Distributions (RMD).

Who can make a qualified charitable distribution?

• You must be at least 70½ years of age at the time of the distribution.
• The distribution must be from your Traditional IRA.
• The distribution must be made directly from the IRA custodian to a qualifying charity, such as the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery.
• Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) are limited to $100,000 per individual each year. Your spouse who qualifies may also make a QCD from his or her IRA.
• For a QCD to count towards your current year’s RMD, the funds must come out of your IRA by your RMD deadline, generally December 31.

Many individuals who are required to take money from their IRA but do not need it for living expenses have chosen to make QCDs from their IRAs to support the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery. This may make sense for you too!

Please consult with your tax professional to determine how you can provide a gift to the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery while achieving the greatest tax benefit.

Save a Stone! New Program

Years ago Marilyn Nolte started a wonderful program to invite cemetery lovers to adopt a broken or fallen stone that they were interested in and then pay to get it repaired.  People liked this program and felt invested in the cemetery. We want to resurrect this program, and give people this opportunity again.

I will share my experience.  As you can imagine, those of us in the FOMH spend a lot of time at Frederick Douglass' gravesite giving tours.  Directly in front of this grave I always noticed a Civil War gravestone which had fallen over and the foundation upset.  I looked at that stone – Sanford A. Penny, Sergeant, 22nd NY Cavalry, Company A.  I couldn't help but ponder that my own great-grandfather, James Corcoran, also served in the 22nd NY Cavalry, in Company D. Both were mustered in here in Rochester in the Monroe County Fairgrounds.

With the help of our genealogist Nancy Uffindell and Civil War records, I learned about Mr. Penny's life. It did not seem right that his gravestone should look so sad and neglected. So I sought out an estimate from Bill Yager (who repairs our gravestones) and got this stone repaired. It was money well-spent, because now whenever I see Sanford Penny's stone, I recall his Civil War service – he enlisted at the age of 18 - and how his military service affected his health for the rest of his life. He may not be well-known, but he is one of our many military heroes buried at Mount Hope. We honor his memory.

If you know of a stone you would like to have repaired, contact us and we will get you an estimate.

Every stone that is repaired – regardless how small – is a step forward in our effort to celebrate the life of each person interred at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Pat Corcoran

Shop at Amazon Smile

Tackle Your Shopping and Support Mount Hope Cemetery -- All With a Click!

To increase the impact of your online shopping, shop on Amazon Smile and choose The Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery as your beneficiary nonprofit. The Friends will get a percentage of all eligible purchases donated back by Amazon.

Amazon Smile is a separate website (smile.amazon.com) but with the same products, prices, and service as Amazon.com. Follow the link above and bookmark that one instead of regular Amazon, then sign in just as you always do, and you can search through or type in the non-profit you would like to support. Each time you make a purchase, it will tell you right there how much you have generated for your organization. This is such an easy way to give back through your regular shopping all year!

FROM PAT:
I looked at this on our homepage for years, and finally signed up.  I had not realized how easy it was, and how much money the FOMH could earn if our members and Friends signed up. Please help us restore stones by using this option when you shop at Amazon!  And tell others as well.