Download Can a Charitable Bequest Offer More than Tax Savings? Three Stories

FEATURE
Isabela Zabava
Can a Charitable Bequest
Offer More than Tax Savings?
Three Stories
T
hroughout their lives,
people work hard to
accomplish their goals and
to ensure they are able to take
care of loved ones.
The amount their estate will need
to pay in taxes can be substantially
decreased by including a charitable
gift in their estate plans. But are tax
benefits the only reason to consider a
charitable gift?
For the three individuals in the
stories below, the reason to include a
gift to the BC Cancer Foundation in
their Will had very little to do with tax
considerations.
In Their Daughter’s Memory
Margaret and Gordon Keatinge
mailed their first donation to the BC
Cancer Foundation from their home
in Northern Ireland soon after they
lost their daughter to a sudden, rare
cancer. Marianne, their only child,
had moved to Vancouver just a few
years earlier to marry and start a new
life in British Columbia.
With that first donation, Mr. and
Mrs. Keatinge created an endowment
fund in their daughter’s name. For
the next 20 years, on the anniversary
of Marianne’s death, another cheque
would arrive from Northern Ireland,
always accompanied by a handwritten
note of thanks for “all the great work
you are doing about cancer research.”
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Mr. and Mrs. Keatinge also rewrote
their Wills to direct a final gift to the
BC Cancer Foundation from their
estate after they were gone.
With that first donation,
Mr. and Mrs. Keatinge
created an endowment fund
in their daughter’s name.
“They wanted to honour
Marianne’s memory,” recalls Dr.
Susan O’Reilly, the BC Cancer Agency
oncologist who treated her, “and put
the money to use where it would make
a difference for other patients and be
an investment in improving patient
outcomes.
“It is exceptional that people in
another country would continue to
support the BC Cancer Agency here
in BC for all those years. They were
an example of sustained faithfulness
to their daughter’s memory and
their commitment to support cancer
research.”
The income from Marianne’s fund
supports medical oncology clinical
research at the BC Cancer Agency.
The Agency has led or collaborated
on many clinical trial advances.
One example is the addition of the
drug Rituximab to the chemotherapy
treatment of lymphoma patients,
which has increased survival rates by
50 percent.
The Scrivener
I Want to Make a Difference for
Others Like Me
Like many of us, David Lee had his
share of challenges during his life. He
lost his only sister to a rare viral illness
when she was only 14, then both
his parents to major illnesses. David
himself was not immune to health
challenges. He was diagnosed with
cancer in 1998 and again in 2003.
Through his experiences, David
became a strong supporter of health
research. He decided to divide his
estate equally among three charities
he believed could make a difference in
people’s lives. One was the BC Cancer
Foundation.
David eventually lost his battle
with cancer. His gift to the BC Cancer
Foundation was used to establish the
David R. Lee Endowment Fund for
Prostate Cancer Research. As was
David’s wish, the income earned from
the endowment fund will always be used
to support clinical research projects
related to prostate cancer and the
training of new oncologists who have a
special interest in prostate cancer.
One of the clinical research
projects supported by the David Lee
Fund will look at circulating tumour
cells, a new marker identified for
prostate cancer.
“This research will help develop
new therapies for prostate cancer and
give us information on how to best
use our current treatments,” says
Volume 16 Number 2 Summer 2007
Photo Credit: Alfred Meikleham
benefit the BC Cancer Agency’s Centre
for the Southern Interior. The gift
was used to purchase an electronic
imaging machine that dramatically
improved the treatment of Southern
Interior cancer patients right in their
community.
Dr. Susan O’Reilly, Medical Oncologist and
Vice President, Cancer Care, at the BC
Cancer Agency, whose work is supported in
part by the endowment fund that Mr. and
Mrs. Keatinge set up in memory of their
daughter Marianne
Dr. Kim Chi, a medical oncologist at
the BC Cancer Agency. “We are the
first centre in Canada to have the
specialized equipment to run these
tests on circulating tumour cells. This
work will not only help develop more
effective treatments for prostate
cancer, it will also help train new
oncologists with special interest in
prostate and similar cancers—which
is very much needed in Canada and
around the world.
We simply couldn’t
have purchased this
equipment without this
donor and other gifts
like hers…
“We simply couldn’t have
purchased this equipment without this
donor and other gifts like hers,” says
Dr. Ross Halperin, head of radiation
oncology at the Agency’s Cancer
Centre, referring to the new imaging
technology the Centre acquired in
2003. “It brought us to then-state-ofthe art level for accuracy and delivery
of radiotherapy for our patients in the
Southern Interior.
“This is the busiest equipment
in the Cancer Centre. It’s used for
patients with many types of cancers—
prostate, head and neck, brain, breast,
and even lung cancers. It’s the most
valuable machine we have.”
Mary’s estate was relatively
modest by monetary measure, but the
legacy of her gift is significant and
lasting. The equipment her bequest
helped purchase has also enabled Dr.
Halperin and his staff to contribute
to a worldwide research program that
will further increase the accuracy of
radiation treatment for future patients.
Many people feel they do not have
a sufficiently large estate to make
a charitable gift and also take care
of their loved ones. Through careful
estate planning, they can discover they
can accomplish both goals.
For many, the satisfaction they will
feel once they realize they can make a
difference in the lives of others may be
quite unexpected. s
Isabela Zabava, LL B, is the Senior
Director, Planned Giving, at the BC
Cancer Foundation. A member of the
Canadian Association of Gift Planners,
Vancouver Estate Planning Council, Law
Society of BC, and the Canadian Bar
Association, she has worked in the notfor-profit sector for the past 13 years.
Voice: 604 877-6157
Toll Free: 1-888-906-2873
Fax:
604 877-6161
[email protected]
“David clearly wanted to give
something back to society to help
others down the road. He was truly a
great man—modest, a fighter to the
end, but at the same time accepting of
his circumstances. I was glad to have
been part of his care and proud to
have our clinical research program be
a recipient of his generosity.”
A Modest Gift Can Make
a Major Difference
A longtime Kelowna resident and
former cancer patient, “Mary” (her
name has been changed) did not
think of herself as a philanthropist.
She did think she could make a
difference, though, so she left half her
estate to the BC Cancer Foundation to
Volume 16 Number 2 Summer 2007
David R. Lee, a BC Cancer Foundation donor whose legacy will forever impact the lives
of prostate cancer patients in BC
The Scrivener
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