Please Donate to CARDA
CARDA teams have participated in thousands of searches since our founding in 1976. Our teams have saved public safety agencies millions of dollars through the use of volunteer resources. All CARDA services provided to requesting agencies and to the family of the lost person are provided free of charge. No person or agency is ever charged for CARDA’s services.
CARDA members incur all costs including gas, vehicles, training, equipment, and dog expenses. By donating to CARDA, a non-profit organization with 501(c)3 status [EIN 94-2476578], you can help offset the cost borne by each member. CARDA accepts donations of cash or equipment.
Your tax-deductible donation to CARDA will be used for such things as communications equipment for members and veterinary expenses for injured K9s. It will also be used to defray the cost of gasoline when members travel to searches, often several hundred miles.
Please send your tax-deductible donations to:
CARDA
3056 Castro Valley Blvd., #101
Castro Valley, CA 94546
You can also donate using a credit card or your PayPal account
CARDA is a proud recipient of the GuideStar Gold Seal.
Leave a Legacy
Will or Living Trust
Naming CARDA as a beneficiary in your will or living trust (bequest) is the most common way you can make a planned gift. It is a simple – and valuable – way to help. Bequests allow donors to make extraordinary contributions at the end of their lives that create a living legacy.
CARDA suggests this simple language for your will, codicil to your will, or your living trust:“I hereby give and bequeath (a specific amount/a percentage of your estate/or specific assets) to CARDA, a not-for-profit, tax-exempt public benefit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of California, with tax ID # 94-2476578, for CARDA’s general purposes.” Gifts to CARDA made in your will or living trust may entitle your estate to a charitable tax deduction.
Here are a few additional types of legacy gifts for your consideration:
Beneficiary Designation
You can name CARDA as a partial or total beneficiary of your retirement accounts, life insurance plan, Donor Advised Fund (DAF), and other financial accounts, including your bank and brokerage accounts.
It is the easiest way to make a gift without the expense of an attorney.
The gift is distributed outside probate and are transferred to CARDA free of federal estate and income tax. 100% of your gift will help!
You can change your beneficiaries at any time, retaining maximum flexibility.
Simply request a change of beneficiary form from your plan provider and include CARDA as a full or partial beneficiary or update your beneficiaries through your online account.
Qualified Charitable Distribution from Your IRA
You can also use your IRA to make a meaningful gift now. Taxpayers age 70½ or older can make tax-free distributions to charities directly from their IRA to CARDA. While many supporters use their Required Minimum Distribution to make a gift, you can give up to $100,000 per taxpayer, per taxable year. You won’t pay income taxes on this distribution.
A simple way to make your QCD is to visit your IRA administrator’s website to determine if you can make your gift online. If you do not wish to make your QCD online, get started by requesting a QCD form from your IRA administrator.
Make sure you include CARDA’s Tax ID number – 94-2476578. Because some IRA administrators will not include your name with your gift, please let us know so we can ensure you get the correct IRA acknowledgment.
Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT)
A charitable remainder unitrust can provide you and/or other beneficiaries with income for life or for a fixed number of years. Many people prefer to use real estate to fund a CRT, but you can also donate cash or appreciated securities. For your donation, you receive an immediate income tax deduction for a portion of your contribution to the unitrust and savings on capital gains taxes, too. You will also have the satisfaction of making a significant gift that benefits you now and CARDA later. With this type of gift, you can:
- Avoid paying capital gains on sales of appreciated stock and real estate
- Receive a significant charitable income tax deduction
- Remove assets from your taxable estate
- At your death, the trust assets are used for the charitable purposes that you have specified
Workplace Giving
If you work for a company, organization, or the federal government, chances are you’ve had the opportunity to participate in a workplace giving program.
Workplace giving programs can take many different forms. These employer sponsored programs typically offer employees the opportunity to make a charitable contribution through recurring payroll deduction or other payment methods. Payroll deduction makes it easy and efficient to make tax-deductible donations to the charities you care about.
Your employer distributes your donation to CARDA directly out of your paycheck in a cost-efficient manner. Workplace giving programs reduces CARDA’s administrative and fundraising burden.