OTHER WAYS TO GIVE

TAX BENEFITS OF GIVING TO CHARITY USING RETIREMENT ASSETS

A QCD (qualified charitable distribution) is an otherwise taxable distribution from an IRA owned by an individual who is age 70 ½ or over that is paid directly from the IRA to the charity.

Donations during your lifetime involve Qualified Contribution Distributions made directly to the qualified charity after the taxpayer reaches the age of 70 ½ and is taken from a traditional IRA account. The Secure Act, passed by Congress in December of 2019, has changed the age for starting required minimum distributions 72 but 70 ½ still applies to QCD’s. Be sure you are 70 ½ before the contribution (QCD) is made.

1. The QCD is subtracted from your taxable income so it avoids any Federal income tax on that portion of the annual required minimum distribution. If subject to a state income tax most states also allow the subtraction.

2. Satisfies part or all of your required distribution for the year.

3. In effect allows for charitable contribution deduction by not including the income in taxable income and still allows the taxpayer a full standard deduction.

Check with for financial and/or tax advisor regarding your specific situation.

DONATION OF HISTORICAL ITEMS TO THE MUSEUM GUIDELINES

We are grateful for every offer. Not every item can join the collection, and that is by design. These guidelines explain what we accept, why some gifts cannot be kept, and how to ask for an item to be returned.

Our mission sets the scope

The Society’s mission is “To Preserve, Educate and Inspire.” That mission is the “scope” of our collections. We take a representative sample of items that:

•         are directly related to the Lewiston area, or

•         were commonly used by people who lived here.

We also collect items like those our townspeople would have used, even when a specific object did not originate in Lewiston.

Why we cannot accept everything

Every object we accept becomes the property of the Lewiston Area Historical Society. We are then obligated to care for it for a very long time. That takes time, money, and storage space.

The collection already holds thousands of artifacts. Some categories are well represented — for example, we have five sewing machines — and we have more than enough to show a representative sample. We do not take duplicates unless an existing piece is badly damaged or significantly altered.

An offered item may already be in the collection, may fall outside our scope, or may simply be more than we can store and care for. Please contact us before you bring an item so we can tell you whether we can receive it.

What happens after a donation

Accepted donations become the property of the Lewiston Area Historical Society. In some cases an item may later be sold rather than stored, so the Society can continue its work.

If you want an item returned

If you would like the possibility of having an item returned to you, please say so when you donate and complete that section of the donation form.

If the item is something the museum would very much like to have, we may still accept it with the understanding that it can be returned to you. Just fill out the return information on the donation form so we have a clear record of your wishes.

Thank you for considering a gift to the museum.

Your generosity helps us preserve the story of the Lewiston area.