Membership & Giving

Oak or Flowering Understory Tree

You can plant an oak or flowering understory tree at our nature reserve in memory or honor of a loved one. These trees will take the place of ash trees that have been attacked by the emerald ash borer. The trees will provide forested habitat for native species. When you make a donation to plant a tree in someone’s honor you cover the cost of purchasing the young tree, protecting it, and the initial care to ensure it has a healthy start. A plaque will be paced near the tree with your name, your family’s name, or the name of a loved one.

Call 412-963-6100 to order a commemorative tree.

• Tree planted within view of a trail: $500
• Tree planted along a trail with a plaque: $1000

Bench

Sometimes you need to take a break while hiking or you just need a place to stop and enjoy the view. Make a donation to have a bench placed at one of our nature sites. A plaque will be placed on the bench with your name, your family’s name, or the name of a loved one.

Call 412-963-6100 to order a commemorative bench.

• Wooden bench with plaque located along one of the trails: $1000
• Concrete/stone bench with plaque at selected location on property: $2500

Commemorative Brick Program

Bricks are placed in the walkway leading to the front entrance of our nature store and Betsy’s Garden Shoppe at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve. Bricks are available in two sizes:

• 4×8 brick: $125
  This brick may contain three lines of up to 14 characters (including spaces) per line or two lines of up to 17 characters (including spaces) per line.
• 8×8: $250
  This brick may contain four lines of up to 14 characters (including spaces) per line.
  Bricks can be engraved with your name, your family’s name, the name of a loved one, or a saying of your choice.

Donate to support connections with nature

If you would simply like to make a monetary donation in honor of someone you can Donate Now. You will be asked if you are making a memorial or commemorative donation and can specify who you are honoring with your gift.

When you provide a notification address for the honoree or their next of kin we can send them a letter to let them know that a donation has been made. The donation amount will not be included in the letter. We can also list your name and the name of the person you are honoring in our quarterly newsletter, The Bulletin, which is mailed to ASWP members.

Memorial and commemorative gifts are tax-deductible. If you are interested in donating to plant an oak tree, having a bench placed at one of our reserves, or placing a brick in our walkway at Beechwood, please contact us at 412-963-6100.

Bequests

Bequests are gifts from your will or trust that do not affect your cash flow during your lifetime. You can put this type of gift in place when you name Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania as a beneficiary in your will or living trust. If you already have a will, you can add us as a beneficiary by executing a one page amendment called a codicil. You can choose to designate a specific amount or asset as a donation or you can designate a percentage of your estate.

This type of gift is beneficial to you because it does not decrease your assets during your lifetime and contributions to a charity are tax free after a person has passed away. Also, if your situation changes, you can modify your gift.

Real estate

By donating real estate, you transfer your property’s deed to Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania through an outright gift or by having ASWP purchase the property from you at a discounted price. You would need to have a fair market appraisal done to demonstrate the property’s value to claim your charitable income tax deduction. This type of gift can be beneficial to you if managing the property has become burdensome. Also, you will not have to pay capital gains tax and you will receive an income tax deduction for your donation.

You can even transfer the title of your home to ASWP and retain the right to live there. Then, when you no longer need the property ASWP can determine if we want to use the property or sell it to support our mission. ASWP will have an ad hoc committee review any gifts of this type to ensure that we can manage any responsibilities associated with this gift.

Life insurance

If you have a life insurance policy that you do not need or that is more coverage than necessary, you can transfer the policy ownership to ASWP. The policy can be fully paid or still have premium payments due. You can receive a charitable income tax deduction for this donation and if there are still premium payments due and you continue to make a donation in the amount of the premium to ASWP then you may continue to receive income tax deductions for those donations. By contacting your insurance carrier or a professional appraiser you can determine the policy’s value. The income tax deduction you will receive will be equal to the cash surrender value of the policy. ASWP can either keep the policy active or sell it.

Alternatively, you can name ASWP as a beneficiary on your policy. This can be done through using the insurer’s change of beneficiary form. If your situation changes, you can always change this designation.

Stock

You can use appreciated stocks, bonds, and mutual funds you have held for more than one year to make a contribution to ASWP’s mission. The security certificate for your accounts can be transferred electronically into ASWP’s account. Call us at 412-963-6100 and we will send you the account information to make the transfer.

Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust

Through a charitable remainder annuity you can put cash, stock, real estate, collectibles, or business interests into a trust. The trust will then pay beneficiaries a fixed amount annually. Capital gains taxes will either be deferred or forgiven and you will receive a charitable income tax deduction for a portion of the value of the assets you transferred to the trust. Also, because these assets have been transferred to the trust they are no longer a part of your taxable estate. The trust can be funded for life or for a term of years and when the term ends the remaining funds will come to ASWP. This gift option provides tax benefits, a fixed payment to you and other named beneficiaries, and a donation to our mission.

Charitable Remainder Unitrust

This trust option differs from the charitable remainder annuity trust in that the payments the trust will make to you and other beneficiaries are not fixed; they are a fixed percentage of the principal amount, so the payments may increase over time. Also, payments can be made for the beneficiaries’ lifetimes, for a term of up to 20 years, or a combination of both. When the term for the trust ends, the remaining funds will come to ASWP.

Charitable Lead Trusts

In this trust option the fixed annual payments come to ASWP and the remainder of the trust goes to your family or others you designate when the trust term ends. The benefit of a charitable lead trust is that it allows you to reduce or completely avoid gift and estate taxes and potentially increase what you can leave to your family.