Homeless pets rely on Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter to provide them healthy happy lives. Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter relies on its supporters to ensure that its life-saving work will continue.

What is a “Planned Gift”?

Planned Gifts can come in many forms, but they all share a common characteristic in that Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter use of the gift is deferred in your lifetime.

You can make a more significant gift to Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter than you ever thought possible, while maximizing the financial and tax benefits to you, your estate, and your family. A planned gift is one of the most effective ways to ensure that Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter can carry on its mission of saving animals’ lives far into the future.

Planned gifts are an essential element in our continued mission to save cats, dogs, puppies and kittens each year and find them new, loving homes. As you will learn from the information contained in this section, there are many ways to make your own planned gift and contribute to our life-saving mission.

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How Can I Help Save Animals?

Gifts through Your Will or Living Trust

You can name Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter as a beneficiary of your estate through a will or trust document.

A gift to Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter through your will or living trust is a powerful statement of your support for Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter’s mission.

As an animal lover, a bequest through a will or trust document is a powerful declaration of the love and compassion you have for homeless animals, who are the most vulnerable and gentle among us. A bequest is a wonderful way to ensure that your legacy will make a difference for thousands of animals who will need our help in the future to find safe and loving homes.

Below you will find sample language which you can share with your Attorney or Estate Planner. Simply include this language in your estate document and you can be assured that you played a major role in the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of thousands of needy animals.

I give to Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter, 133 Hilltop Rd, Sprakers, New York 12166 in the sum of $______) (all or ___ % of the residue of my estate/trust), to be used for its general purposes.

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Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT)

You can create a Charitable Remainder Trust naming Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter as a beneficiary.

Charitable Remainder Trusts are irrevocable trusts that provide you with structured lifetime payments. A Charitable Remainder Trust is an irrevocable trust that holds property that you transfer into it. During your lifetime (or the lifetimes of you and another, or a third person) you will receive annual income, based on a percentage of the property held in the trust, valued either at the date of the transfer or revalued each year. After your death, or the death(s) of the named beneficiary(ies), the amount remaining in the trust will come to Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter to benefit future homeless dogs, cats, kittens and puppies.

Gifts through Life Insurance or Retirement Plans

You can make Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter a full or partial beneficiary of a life insurance or retirement plan.

Naming Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter as the beneficiary of all or a portion of your retirement plan is a simple and smart way to help our orphaned pets…

Retirement plan assets are among the best assets to use for charitable gifts. You can create a legacy by naming Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter as beneficiary or contingent beneficiary of an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), Keogh account, or other qualified retirement plan. Upon your death, all or a portion of the unused balance in your account is transferred to Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter.

• When a retirement account is left to a charity, the organization does not pay the income tax (or, if applicable, estate taxes) that might otherwise be due if left to an individual beneficiary.

• Making a gift requires merely completing a change of beneficiary form, which may be obtained from the plan administrator. Here is the information you need to name Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter as your beneficiary:

  • Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter
    133 Hilltop Road
    Sprakers, NY 12166

​Transfer on Death Accounts (TOD)

You can name Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter as a beneficiary of a transfer on death bank or stock account.

You can support Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter by naming Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter the beneficiary of a “transfer on death” bank or stock account.

• In almost all states it is possible to own bank or brokerage accounts in your name with the provision that on your death it will be transferred to Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter. These are often called “transfer on death” or “pay on death” accounts or Totten trusts.

• If you choose to make Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter the beneficiary of a TOD account, you have complete control over the accounts during your lifetime.

Here is the information you will need to establish a transfer on death account with your bank or broker:

Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter
133 Hilltop Road
Sprakers, NY 12166

For more information or to let us know that you have made a planned gift to Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter in your estate plans, please contact us at 518-673-5670.

All inquiries will be kept strictly confidential, and imply no obligation to make a gift.