Planned Giving and Endowment

Your contribution creates an enduring legacy, impacting the lives of young Israelis from the margins of society.

Founded in 1977 by Edmond J. Safra z’’l, his wife Lily Safra, and Nina A. Weiner, the Israel Scholarship Education Foundation’s mission is to forge a more equitable society and bolster its prosperity and security by supporting higher education for gifted students from Israel’s marginalized communities. ISEF is the only organization that seamlessly supports each student as far as talent and tenacity allow – from B.A. through M.A., Ph.D., and even postdoctoral study.

Make ISEF Part of Your Legacy

Share your love for Israel, higher education, and equal opportunity, now and for generations to come, by including a bequest to the ISEF Foundation’s endowment in your estate plans. As tax laws change, our team will help you navigate options that are not only best for you but that will also enable the ISEF Foundation to keep working on expanding access to higher education for generations to come.

A gift to ISEF’s endowment ensures our work continues into the future. These donations are invested for the long term, with a portion of their income used each year to fund ISEF Foundation activities—scholarships, leadership training programs, and community service projects mentoring vulnerable teens. You can establish an endowment fund with a lifetime gift or a gift in your will. Or you can create an endowment fund in ISEF during your lifetime and then, in your will, make an additional bequest to the endowment fund of a more substantial amount. Your endowment fund will be named for you or for someone whose name you wish to honor or remember in perpetuity.

Planned Giving Options

Planned giving techniques are ways of making donations to ISEF, either now or in the future, that are integrated with your general financial or estate planning. You should consult with your attorney, accountant, or financial advisor about how to use these techniques to the best advantage, for tax savings or other planning purposes

A Gift in Your Will or Trust:
A simple way to donate to ISEF is by making a gift from your estate or a trust that you have created, known as a charitable bequest. You can support our students and their groundbreaking research by making a restricted or unrestricted bequest to ISEF. Charitable bequests are deductible for estate tax purposes, and may have income tax advantages as well.

Qualified IRA Distributions:
Federal legislation allows you to make tax-free distributions of up to $100,000 per year from your IRA directly to a “qualified” charity, such as ISEF, after age 70.5. Such distributions can have significant income tax benefits.

Beneficiary Designations:
You can also name ISEF as a beneficiary to receive particular kinds of assets such as retirement plans and IRAs. Assets distributed to family members from a retirement plan or IRA may be subject to a combination of income taxes and estate taxes totaling 75% or more of the asset value. Naming ISEF as beneficiary avoids all those taxes, so it can be very beneficial to leave such assets to charity and leave other, less heavily taxed assets to your heirs.

Charitable Remainder Trust:
This type of trust allows you to plan for retirement and preserve your estate while minimizing capital gains taxes. Establishing a charitable remainder trust allows you retain the right to receive a defined stream of distributions for a period of time, or for your lifetime. The assets remaining in the trust at the end of the term, or at your death, would then benefit ISEF.

Charitable Lead Trust:
This type of trust allows you to give a series of payments to ISEF for a number of years. After that time, the assets in the trust would pass to your family or other named beneficiaries. This technique can result in passing future benefits to family members, such as children and grandchildren, with much less tax cost than if you leave the assets to family members directly. Such a trust can be created during your lifetime or as of your death.

Charitable Gifts of Appreciated Property (stocks, bonds, and real estate):
If you have property that has increased in value, you can give that property to ISEF, and possibly get an income tax deduction for the full value, without paying capital gains tax. If capital gains tax rates increase, this technique may become even more beneficial.

Gifts of Life Insurance:
You may designate ISEF as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy you no longer need to protect your family. Alternatively, you may give the policy to ISEF during your lifetime, and get an income tax deduction for all or part of the policy’s current value. Any such arrangement must take into account how future premiums, if any, are paid. Contributions to ISEF for payment of premiums would be income tax deductible to the same extent as any other contribution to ISEF.

The IMPACT

ENDOWING ISEF SCHOLARSHIPS IN ISRAEL IN PERPETUITY

> $250,000: Funding Four Named B.A. ISEF Scholarships

Endowment contributions are anticipated to yield income in the range of 4% per annum, generating $10,000 in scholarship funds for distribution each year in perpetuity to ISEF’s deserving students in Israel. ISEF will grant named scholarships valued at $2,500 per annum to each designated ISEF student; this sum will then be matched or even exceeded by funds contributed by Israeli government partners and academic institutions. This sum covers Israeli tuition in full, as well as a partial living stipend.

> $500,000: Funding Five Named ISEF Scholarships for ISEF Master’s Students

> $1,000,000: Funding Six Named ISEF Scholarships for ISEF M.D. and Ph.D. Students

If desired, a scholarship award ceremony may be arranged in Israel or New York to honor the name(s) of those for whom this endowment is named; family and friends may be invited to attend either in person or virtually.

ENDOWING ISEF COLLEGE PREP PROGRAMS IN PERPETUITY

> $2,500,000: Funding ISEF College Prep Mentoring Programs Targeting At-Risk Teens:

As part of their community service, ISEF’s 400+ scholarship students tutor and mentor 3,000 vulnerable teens and soldiers each week from Israel’s underserved periphery, with the aim of helping them qualify for admission to college after they complete army service. ISEF’s students are ideal role models, coming themselves from families where nobody went to college or even completed high school. ISEF operates over a dozen college prep programs throughout Israel. If a particular program is discontinued in the future for any reason, ISEF will ensure that income from this endowment is used in a similar college prep program targeting at-risk Israeli youth.

If desired, a scholarship award ceremony may be arranged in Israel or New York to honor the name(s) of those for whom this endowment is named; family and friends may be invited to attend either in person or virtually.

ENDOWING ISEF INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIPS IN PERPETUITY

> $3,000,000: Eight Named ISEF International Fellowships Funded

Since 1977, ISEF has awarded International Fellowships to a thousand of Israel’s finest scholars from marginalized immigrant communities, enabling them to pursue advanced training at world-renowned institutions such as Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and others, with outstanding results. Endowment contributions are anticipated to yield income in the range of 4% per annum, generating scholarship money available for distribution each year to

ISEF’s International Fellows outside Israel in perpetuity. ISEF will fund each International Fellow at $15,000. If desired, a scholarship award ceremony may be arranged in Israel or New York to honor the name(s) of those for whom this endowment is named; family and friends may be invited to attend either in person in Israel or virtually from abroad.

> Endowment Gifts of $5,000,000 or More

At this level, ISEF will arrange a festive ceremony at a time and location of the donor’s choosing, to honor the name(s) of those for whom this endowment is named.

To start the conversation about ways you can support our mission with planned giving, reach out to The ISEF Foundation’s Executive Director, Dima Shimelfarb, at 646-420-0590 or e-mail dshima@isef.org