At the end of 2006, Founding family received two very meaningful gifts. A family in Illinois donated three time-shares, and an old friend of Founding Family, Mary Warren, gave us her American Express miles which converted to $120, which was sent to Amanda Delange at Starfish Home . You can go to www.americanexpress.com/give, powered by www.JustGive.org for more information.

AIRLINE MILES OPPORTUNITIES: Just recently The Wall Street Journal had an article titled, ‘How to Prevent Airline Miles From Vanishing’. I quote from the article, “For years, consumers have complained that frequent-flier miles are too hard to use. Now, some airlines are making them easier to lose-by imposing earlier expiration dates. Thankfully, there are some good work•a•rounds.”

Give Founding Family the miles you won’t use and we can help volunteers travel to China, India and Israel to help the orphans and we can give them to adopting families to travel to pick up their babies. And you will get a tax deduction for your help. DON’T LOSE THOSE MILES, FOUNDING FAMILY CAN USE THEM!!

Steps to take: Check your balances and expiration dates on your accounts where you have miles. Inquire how to transfer those miles to Founding Family, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization. When we get the miles we will disburse them to families getting ready to travel to pick up their babies. DON’T LET YOUR MILES EVAPORATE!

QUALIFIED CHARITABLE DISTRIBUTION: In the same Wall Street Journal, February 3-4, 2007 a reader asked, “How do you transfer money from an IRA to a charity?” Their answer is as follows. “The Pension Protection Act of 2006 created a new opportunity for charitable giving. People over age 701/2 can donate as much as $100,000 from their individual retirement accounts to charity. The distributions are tax-free and count toward the required minimum distribution that IRA holders in that age group must take from their accounts each year.

Qualified Charitable Distributions, or QCD’s, were first available last year and ends Dec. 31, 2007 with a maximum contribution of $100,000 allowed for each year.You’re right to be careful about the technicalities. Three important points: Donors can’t take a tax deduction for these donations, and some types of charities-including donor-advised funds and private foundations-don’t qualify as recipients. (Founding Family Charitable Foundation QUALIFIES). Also the gifts have to be made directly from the IRA to the charity.

First, you have to call the holder of your IRA-usually a mutual-fund company or bank-and explain that you want part of your IRA moved to the Charity, and ask for any required paperwork…Second, you need to alert the “lucky charity.” E-mail John@FoundingFamily.org giving your name and address, the amount of your donation and your custodian information. Founding Family will supply to you all the information you will need to give to your custodian. Founding family will issue you a “letter of recognition acknowledging the gift, the date of receipt, the amount, and language specifying that it came from your IRA. Hold onto that letter…Finally, on your tax return, you would report your entire IRA distribution for the year on line 15A of the 1040 form. Then, you subtract the amount that went to charity and enter the difference on line 15B, and follow with the initials “QDC.” If your entire $10,000 distribution went to charity, you would enter $10,000 on line 15A and 0 “QDC” on line 15B…If you withdrew $50,000, with $10,000 going to charity, you would put $50,000 on 15A and $40,000 “QDC” on 15B…The instructions are spelled out on page 25 of the 1040 Instructions for 2006, available at irs.gov.” The Wall Street is a great place for helpful tips on taxes. As always, consult your financial professional for help on your individual situation.

GIFT CARD OPPORTUNITIES: Did you know that in most states all the $dollars$ left on gift cards go to the state government if you do not use them? Founding Family can use the unused $dollars$ on your cards to purchase supplies to take to children in need. If Founding Family received multiple cards from a particular store, we would try to negotiate to turn the cards into cash to help orphans, and help the store get the unused cards off their books. Recently the Clinique counter at Dillards gave Founding Family a bag of little makeup purses that were out of date, but brand-new, for us to take to China and give to little orphan girls, who just loved having a little purse of their own. Retailers can have hearts, so don’t hesitate to ask for free gifts in the stores that you shop in and send us the free gifts so that we can distribute them.

TIME SHARE OPPORTUNITIES: Many seniors have time-shares that they just don’t use anymore. They purchased them when their children were small and used them as they grew up to see America and now the kids are gone and it is more work to use the time-share than they are willing to invest in. Time-share gifts to Founding Family are enough to meaningfully reduce your annual income taxes that you pay. If you give your time-share to Founding Family you will receive a Charitable Tax Deduction that may reduce your annual income tax for a number of years, up to six years or until the deduction is used up. There are many ways that Founding Family can use them to raise money, such as silent auctions.

Copyright 2006-2007 Founding Family Charitable Foundation, All rights reserved.