than ever.

Here are three interesting emerging themes:

They don’t need it—or want it.

Sometimes it makes good financial sense for heirs to disclaim inheritances from their parents. This Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) is instructive, noting that heirs can sometimes benefit from refusing an inheritance, allowing assets—especially tax-heavy ones like traditional IRAs—to pass to contingent beneficiaries in a more tax-efficient way. Legal disclaimers provide post-death flexibility for families to adjust estate plans in response to current circumstances, though they must be executed carefully to comply with strict rules.

Strategic giving leads to local giving.

High net worth donors are becoming more intentional and strategic in their charitable giving, focusing on outcomes, alignment with personal values, and long-term impact rather than making purely reactive or broad-based donations. Alongside these changes is a growing preference for supporting local organizations, as donors increasingly want to see the direct effects of their contributions within their own communities.

Hands-on local involvement and proactive planning go hand in hand.

Donors using donor-advised funds are particularly locally focused, as evidenced by volunteering statistics. These donors are significantly more likely to volunteer their time—especially within their own communities—demonstrating deeper, hands-on engagement with the organizations they support. This combination of higher volunteerism and frequent giving suggests that donor-advised fund donors are not only more active philanthropically but also more personally connected to local causes and community impact.

To learn how these trends might apply to your situation, please reach out to IECF! Our team is happy to work with you and your advisors to structure a charitable giving plan—including a donor-advised fund, cause-specific fund, legacy fund, and more—that meets your overall financial and estate planning goals while also ensuring that your wealth can help improve the quality of life in our region for years to come. 

Please reach out to our Charitable Giving Team anytime. Stay up to date on all the good work we’re doing through the power of philanthropy – sign up for our eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters, today.

The team at the community foundation is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. Please consult your tax or legal advisor to learn how this information might apply to your own situation.

The post Rethinking legacy: Balancing gifts to heirs with the community’s future appeared first on IECF.

If you’ve recently retired, you may still be figuring out the ideal balance of activities. If you’ve been retired for several years, you might still be trying to figure it out! Time and again, research shows us that finding purpose is an essential component of a happy and satisfying retirement. Consider the following: 

• A large-scale, longitudinal study used data from 13,770 older adults, finding that those with a higher sense of purpose at baseline were significantly less likely to develop unhealthy behaviors.
• Other research used a nationally representative panel of over 8,000 American adults and determined that, contrary to some beliefs, retirement can actually increase a person’s sense of purpose. 
• A cross-sectional study analyzed data from nearly 2,000 adults and found that a sense of purpose was significantly associated with lower depression and anxiety in both retirees and non-retirees. 

Indeed, retirement offers a unique opportunity for individuals to rediscover their sense of purpose beyond the confines of a traditional career. The IECF team and charitable tools can play a pivotal role in this journey.

Here’s how:

Check in on tax planning

For starters, the IECF team can work with you and your tax advisors to be sure your charitable giving is reflected in your estate and financial plan to achieve the impact you’re seeking. Among other issues, we’ll help you and your advisors explore whether itemizing your tax deductions in certain years might save you money. You can “bunch” charitable donations into your donor-advised fund in higher-income years to exceed the itemization threshold, then support your favorite causes steadily over time from that fund. If you’re 70 ½ or older, we’ll also help evaluate whether tax-free transfers directly from your IRA—up to $108,000 (in 2025)—to a designated, unrestricted, or field-of-interest fund at IECF would be an effective planning technique for your situation. 

Involve the next generation

Many retirees have more time to include family members in their personal charitable giving activities. The IECF team can work alongside you and your estate planning advisors to name children or grandchildren as advisors or successor advisors to your donor-advised fund and invite them to participate in site visits and educational events. This is a great way to strengthen family bonds while building a legacy of generosity across generations. Our team can help you identify ways to include children and grandchildren in site visits to favorite charities and participate in education sessions about community needs and the nonprofits that are making a difference for people who live in our region. 

Build a legacy

Many people update their estate plans just after they retire. As you work with your tax and estate planning advisors, consider incorporating a gift in your estate plan that will allow your charitable legacy to live on for generations. For example, many people name a fund at IECF as the beneficiary of their IRAs because of the significant tax advantages when compared with leaving the IRAs to heirs. IECF is happy to work with you and your advisors to establish a special fund to receive assets from your estate, whether from an IRA or other type of estate gift. The fund can be structured as a permanent endowment to address the community’s greatest needs far into the future, or even support IECF’s operations to ensure that philanthropy and stewardship continue to thrive for generations to come. You can also name your donor-advised fund as an estate beneficiary, and your children and grandchildren can serve as advisors to the fund so that they, in turn, can carry on the spirit of charitable giving in the family’s name. 

We look forward to working with you throughout your retirement years to ensure that your community dreams are fulfilled through the power of charitable giving. Please reach out anytime. 

Please reach out to our Charitable Giving Team anytime, and stay up to date on all the good work we’re doing through the power of philanthropy. Sign up for our eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters, today.

The team at IECF is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. Please consult your tax or legal advisor to learn how this information might apply to your own situation.

The post Advancing your purpose: Considerations for a philanthropic retirement appeared first on IECF.

Brian and Lori Rennie

For example, Brian and Lori Rennie’s passion for the outdoors inspired them to establish a legacy fund with IECF, ensuring that future generations will receive educations and continue to enjoy the natural beauty of Joshua Tree. Their story is a testament to how estate planning can align personal passions with long-term impact.

Phil and Karen Hudis

After experiencing the devastating losses of their daughter, Cathy, and niece, Sascha, Phil and Karen Hudis wanted to honor their loved ones’ spirits of giving. Upon their passing, the Cathy Hudis/Sascha Franzel Life Fund will be established with IECF, ensuring that Cathy and Sascha’s legacies of compassion and service live on through grants that support local causes, including cancer care and community needs in the Coachella Valley.

Or, consider Victress Bower’s story. A highly respected teacher in the early 1900s, Ms. Bower received a salary of $1,700 per year. Through savvy investment of an inheritance from her brother, Victress was able to leave an endowment of $180,000 in 1967 when she passed. Since its inception, the fund at IECF has granted over half a million dollars to teachers who train and teach children with disabilities. It will continue to provide scholarships in perpetuity.

Victress Bower

You too can leave a legacy that reflects your values. By including IECF in your will or trust, you ensure that the issues and causes you care about will continue to thrive. Reach out to IECF’s charitable giving team to explore the many ways to build a meaningful and lasting legacy in our community. As your trusted partner in philanthropy, we can ensure that your generosity lives on for years to come.

Learn more and download your free copy of our Estate Planning Guide here.

The post Secure your legacy and create lasting change appeared first on IECF.

Brian and Lori, The Matterhorn

From trekking through the surreal landscape of Joshua Tree National Park to hiking 100 exhilarating miles in the Swiss Alps, Brian and Lori Rennie have spent 25 years with a shared appreciation for the majestic outdoors. Together, they’ve run a successful business, explored the world, and kicked off retirement by establishing a nonprofit that invites others to understand and steward the magnificent desert they now call home.

While Brian’s adventures began at a young age as part of a backpacking Boy Scout troop, Lori’s Chicago upbringing offered mostly city views, cloudy skies, and snowy days until she moved to California in 1987. When she met Brian, he was an avid and accomplished rock climber who had honed his skills in Joshua Tree. In this remote and otherworldly terrain with its unusual, spiky trees and mighty boulders, Lori learned to view the desert through Brian’s eyes. Unlike snowcapped mountains and sparkling beaches, the desert “has a subtle beauty,” Lori says.  “But once you’ve discovered it you see it everywhere.”

Brian studied marine biology at Cal State Fullerton, but his career path took a surprising turn at the end of his graduate studies. “I decided I didn’t want to do marine biology, I wanted to open my own business,” Brian says. “My education provided me with the ability to think logically and do research, so even though I didn’t have any previous experience I taught myself everything I needed to know.” Brian founded Benchmark Studios, a successful commercial design company in Anaheim.  The couple married in 2003, ran the business together, and retired in 2013. They now live full-time on their 20-acre property at the entrance of Joshua Tree National Park, where Brian built an expansive Santa Fe-style home in 1994.

Soon after relocating to Joshua Tree, the Rennies hosted a party to get to know members of their community. A conversation with one of the guests, then-superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park, Mark Butler, served as the launch pad for Lori’s passion project, Joshua Tree Residential Education Experience (JTREE). Butler asked Lori what she intended to do during retirement. She replied, “Well, I’m not sure, but I love kids and I love this park.”

That connection was the impetus to establish a nonprofit offering outdoor education within the park. Today, JTREE provides field trips, overnight camping experiences and other programming for elementary students. Lori’s earlier background in corporate business has served her well in establishing a partnership with the National Park Service, building the infrastructure of the nonprofit, and obtaining significant initial grants needed to offer programming. Future plans include establishing a campus within the park, but JTREE’s board is careful to consider the impact a permanent location might have on the precious land and its inhabitants, which range from desert tortoises to bighorn sheep.

The Rennie home

“We’re honored to be a part of exposing youth to the beauty of the desert and its importance in our world,” says Lori. “Joshua Tree is an underserved community, and as surprising as it might seem, some of these children who live here have never even been into the park.” She cites the innate value of getting kids involved in outdoor activities like hiking. “It brings them confidence, it helps them achieve things they never thought they could. They’re challenging themselves physically and mentally, and they learn to see their backyard as more than dirt and rocks.”

Lori tells the story of elementary students who were part of a JTREE pollinators program. Kids raised ladybugs, butterflies and praying mantis, but when it came time to let them go some of the children wanted to keep their insects, housed in little plastic cups, as pets. “The teacher asked them to think about what it would be like to be in one small place, with nowhere else to go. Or what it would be like to set their little friends free to roam from flower to flower, pollinating and making the world more beautiful. It was the perfect lesson about our role in the ecosystem and how we can make things better by caring well for the creatures who share our planet.”

While Joshua Tree National Park is a tourist destination for millions or a second home for part-time residents, Brian and Lori have planted roots in the community and are committed to helping their neighbors prosper. After pledging a planned gift to Brian’s alma mater, the Rennies wanted to explore other opportunities to leave a legacy that supports the park and the academic pursuits of local residents.

Lori was acquainted with IECF because of her nonprofit work. “I liked what the Foundation was doing and the broad reach we could have through a fund with IECF,” she tells us. In 2023, the couple established the Brian and Lori Rennie Legacy Fund to offer outdoor education for local students and provide scholarships for Morongo Basin residents who are focused on STEM studies.

Through their philanthropy, Brian and Lori hope to enlighten others about the desert’s fragile but incredible splendor while encouraging like-minded people to give back locally. “By partnering with a regional foundation like IECF,” Lori says, “we’re protecting something valuable, supporting the community that has given us so much joy, and making it possible for future generations to enjoy and be stewards of this desert treasure.”

Lori and Brian Rennie with IECF staff, Brie Griset Smith, CSPG (L), Chief Development Officer, and Celia Cudiamat (R), Chief Impact Officer

Brian adds, “Many people leave their estate to their family. For us, it makes sense to help the people who need it most. We like the idea of giving someone a stepping stone toward a better future.”

Brie Griset Smith, CSPG, Chief Development Officer for IECF, applauds the Rennie’s generosity and the example they’re setting. “Brian and Lori are an inspiration,” she says. “They’re inviting people to go out and see the world around them, to be in awe, and to participate in a meaningful way. It’s a privilege to be a part of their story as they pave the way for new citizen scientists and help preserve the incredible land around us.”

If you would like to learn how you can leave a legacy and support causes close to your heart – today and beyond your lifetime – contact our Charitable Giving Department at giving@iegives.org.

The post Desert Inspiration: The Brian and Lori Rennie Legacy Fund appeared first on IECF.

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One highlight among the 2024 Pride Month festivities was the vibrant grand opening of the IE LGBTQ+ Center in Riverside, co-founded by our board vice chair, Jesse Melgar, Assembly Member Sabrina Cervantes and TruEvolution CEO Gabriel Maldonado. Shown with Program Director Toi Thibodeaux (second from right).

June is Pride Month, and all across the region, we’ve seen a month-long celebration of our LGBTQ+ friends, neighbors, and relatives. IECF is proud to work with donors and organizations that work year-round to ensure that every member of our community has an opportunity to thrive. Take, for example, the new IE LGBTQ+ Center, which recently opened in Riverside. Co-founder and IECF board vice chair Jesse Melgar said, “It’s a space much needed in our region and one I wish I had growing up. Congrats to all who worked hard to realize this vision.”

The truth is, though, that when the celebrations end, many LGBTQ+ individuals will continue to face a steady stream of discrimination, impacting everything from housing to healthcare access. Social isolation amplifies mental health struggles, while legal hurdles add another layer of complexity. Despite this, the LGBTQ+ community demonstrates incredible resilience, and the Inland Empire is host to many dedicated organizations working tirelessly to create a more equitable and inclusive future where everyone feels a sense of belonging.

If you’ve been following IECF for a while, you know we’re strong proponents of the Vital Conditions Framework, which identifies seven core elements essential for individual and community well-being. The framework goes beyond basic necessities like healthcare and emphasizes the importance of factors like belonging, fair economic opportunity, and quality education.

Belonging is a Vital Condition

For all of us, and especially for marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ community, the fundamental human need for belonging is a priority. A sense of belonging fosters the freedom to thrive and encourages self-acceptance and resilience. Belonging creates unity and strength, healing fractures within a community and enabling forward progress.

At IECF, we’re proud of our investments in organizations that lift up the LGBTQ+ community and enable belonging. Here are a few:

Harriet Mark received much-needed assistance from the L-Fund

The Margot Fund awarded a grant to The LGBTQ Center of the Desert for their food bank, which provides free groceries for local families and residents without fear of discrimination. The Center was also a recent recipient of a grant from the Build Coachella Valley Fund, an IECF Signature Fund.

The L-Fund came to the assistance of community member Harriet Mark after her wife passed away from COVID. The L-Fund works to create an inclusive and diverse community in which lesbians are provided a reliable resource for financial assistance, social engagement, and programs that enrich their lives.

The Safe Schools Desert Cities Fund grants scholarships to youth who have helped foster a positive self-image among their LGBTQ+ peers. Recently, Kyra Boyle received an award that will help her complete her Master’s Degree in Social Work so she can help youth who are dealing with mental trauma.

Safe Schools Desert Cities 2024 Scholarship Recipients

Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance received a grant to reduce barriers for LGBTQ+ children, youth and their families through the delivery of mobile behavioral health and wellness.

TruEvolution provides life-saving housing and healthcare services to members of the community, 80% of whom identify as LGBTQ+, including those living with HIV, youth transitioning out of the foster care system, and senior citizens.

As you read these stories, you’ll see that it’s our generous donors who ignite the potential for positive change. When it comes to charitable giving, IECF empowers our donors to give in personal, meaningful ways. For example, if you want your giving to have a specific focus, like supporting individual communities and organizations, a Donor Advised Fund allows you to do exactly that, turning good intentions into tangible results for a cause close to your heart. Maybe you envision a permanent legacy that supports a cause for generations to come. We can help you establish an endowed fund for perpetual giving, enabling a family mission that you, your children and grandchildren can participate in today and carry forward into the brighter future you imagined.

Find Your Path to Philanthropic Impact

IECF offers personalized guidance to help you choose the planned giving option that best aligns with your philanthropic goals. We can help you:

Develop a Strategic Giving Plan: Designate specific areas of focus within the community you wish to support.
Maximize Tax Benefits: Explore tax advantages associated with planned giving options.
Ensure Long-Term Impact: Whether through a DAF or endowed fund, your gift will continue to make a difference for years to come.

By creating an IECF DAF or endowed fund, you can play a vital role in creating a more inclusive and welcoming world – starting right here in your own backyard. Contact our Chief Development Officer, Brie Griset Smith, CSPG, to learn more about how you can invest to ensure that everyone feels a sense of belonging.

Stay up to date on all the good work we’re doing through the power of philanthropy. Sign up for our eNewsletter, Philanthropy Matters, today.

The post Invest in Belonging and Establish Your Legacy: Supporting LGBTQ+ communities appeared first on IECF.

IECF joins the Coachella Valley and beyond in mourning the loss of the legendary Jane Lykken Hoff

Jane poured her time, resources, and passion into causes that were close to her heart. From arts and culture to education and environmental protection, Jane Lykken Hoff’s fingerprints were on countless initiatives that enriched the lives of those around her.

A commitment to nurturing homegrown talent was particularly evident in her provision of scholarships through IECF to benefit the College of the Desert nursing program. This visionary act ensured that future generations of students would receive their education and training at a local college and enjoy careers in the community that fostered their growth.

Jane’s impact will extend far beyond her lifetime. Through her estate, she has established a permanent endowment at the Inland Empire Community Foundation. We’re honored to carry the torch of her legacy in support of charities she championed for generations to come.

Read more about Jane Lykken Hoff and our many other generous donors who are creating positive change in the region. Contact us to explore your options for charitable giving!

The post In memory of Jane Lykken Hoff: her legacy lives on appeared first on IECF.