Service Dogs For First Responders
Legacy Stewards
Your Legacy Gift Helps To Ensure Our Future
Veterans, Police, First Responders, and the communities they serve, will continue to need the care and support of devoted canine partners.
Since 1997, Puppies Behind Bars (PBB) has been teaching incarcerated individuals to raise and train service dogs for people who require the aid an expertly trained dog can provide. Since then, the support of generous and dedicated donors has made it possible for PBB to thrive and evolve to address the needs of a country that experienced the tragedy of 9/11, years of military conflicts overseas, the COVID-19 pandemic, and dramatic changes in how police departments relate to their communities.
When you include Puppies Behind Bars in your estate plan, you provide us with the ability to project our programs into wider areas of service to increase and deepen our impact for years to come.
At the same time, you support a successful prison-based education and training program that has been a life-changing experience for many of the incarcerated individuals who have participated as puppy-raisers. As a PBB Legacy Steward, your gift helps secure a better future for those in need through Puppies.
Today, our service dogs are trained to help veterans, police officers, firefighters, and other first responders who suffer from PTSD, or other trauma, related to their service careers. Our facility dogs are paired with active-duty police officers to assist with officer wellness, community policing initiatives, and to provide comfort to victims and survivors of violent crimes who may need to testify about their experiences in court. Our explosive-detection canines (EDCs) work with law enforcement to sweep public venues presenting major events for sports, business, politics (including inaugurations), and to investigate crimes.
Throughout our nearly 30-year history, PBB has adapted and evolved to serve the needs of those who have dedicated their lives to protecting and serving all of us. Puppies’ Legacy Stewards ensure the continued success of this mission for years to come.
Benefits of Giving
Legacy Stewards are confident that their gifts will benefit the people and causes that are meaningful to them—at no cost to them during their lifetime.
In addition to providing ongoing support of the Puppies Behind Bars mission, Legacy Stewards and their loved ones may also receive substantial tax and financial advantages, including:
- Income tax deduction
- Reduced capital gains taxes
- Reduced probate costs and estate taxes
By taking advantage of the opportunities and incentives provided by law, you and your financial advisor can make a plan that cares for your needs during your lifetime, as well as future benefits for your loved ones and Puppies Behind Bars.
Without a will, the laws of your state will decide how your estate is divided. Typically, the probate court will divide an estate among surviving family members according to an intestate succession formula, with little or no regard for charities preferred by the deceased.
If you have a will or living trust, you decide how your estate is distributed. We encourage you to work with an experienced attorney to create a will or living trust that accomplishes your goals for your estate.
AARP produces a very helpful guide for planning and managing assets as you look ahead to providing for your own needs and the people and causes that are most meaningful to you.
Ways to Give
An ESTATE GIFT from your will or trust is a common, flexible, and practical way to make a legacy gift to Puppies Behind Bars. You can maintain control of your assets during your lifetime, change your mind, and possibly save on taxes if your gift to PBB qualifies for an estate tax charitable deduction.
There are several ways to plan an estate gift through simple declarations or designations in your will or trust:
- General Gift: A defined sum in the donor’s will or trust, e.g., “the sum of $25,000.”
- Specific Gift: A particular asset such as CDs, mutual funds, or stock.
- Conditional Gift: A gift restricted to a specific, existing Puppies program or need, “the sum of $25,000 to support raising and placing service dogs with first responders” through Puppies Behind Bars’ Backup Buddy® program, for instance.
- Residuary Gift: A gift based on a percentage of your estate that remains after payment of taxes, debts, settlement expenses, and fulfillment of other bequests to primary beneficiaries.
BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION. By naming or designating Puppies Behind Bars as the direct beneficiary of a specific death benefit, your legacy gift may pass directly to Puppies without going through the probate process.
- Retirement Plan or IRA: Your retirement plan administrator can provide the form for you to simply designate Puppies Behind Bars as the primary beneficiary of your retirement plan. PBB can be the beneficiary of all or a portion of an Inherited IRA account to be paid upon the death of the donor.
- Life Insurance Policy: Your insurance company can provide the form that allows you to name Puppies Behind Bars as the beneficiary of the policy death benefit, or a portion of that benefit.
- Bank Account: You can meet with your banker and complete their beneficiary designation form naming Puppies Behind Bars to receive the balance in your bank account as a gift.
- Donor-advised Fund (DAF): Puppies Behind Bars can be named as the beneficiary of the remainder of your “donor-advised fund.”
Estate Gift
An ESTATE GIFT from your will or trust is a common, flexible, and practical way to make a legacy gift to Puppies Behind Bars. You can maintain control of your assets during your lifetime, change your mind, and possibly save on taxes if your gift to PBB qualifies for an estate tax charitable deduction.
There are several ways to plan an estate gift through simple declarations or designations in your will or trust:
- General Gift: A defined sum in the donor’s will or trust, e.g., “the sum of $25,000.”
- Specific Gift: A particular asset such as CDs, mutual funds, or stock.
- Conditional Gift: A gift restricted to a specific, existing Puppies program or need, “the sum of $25,000 to support raising and placing service dogs with first responders” through Puppies Behind Bars’ Backup Buddy® program, for instance.
- Residuary Gift: A gift based on a percentage of your estate that remains after payment of taxes, debts, settlement expenses, and fulfillment of other bequests to primary beneficiaries.
Beneficiary Designation
BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION. By naming or designating Puppies Behind Bars as the direct beneficiary of a specific death benefit, your legacy gift may pass directly to Puppies without going through the probate process.
- Retirement Plan or IRA: Your retirement plan administrator can provide the form for you to simply designate Puppies Behind Bars as the primary beneficiary of your retirement plan. PBB can be the beneficiary of all or a portion of an Inherited IRA account to be paid upon the death of the donor.
- Life Insurance Policy: Your insurance company can provide the form that allows you to name Puppies Behind Bars as the beneficiary of the policy death benefit, or a portion of that benefit.
- Bank Account: You can meet with your banker and complete their beneficiary designation form naming Puppies Behind Bars to receive the balance in your bank account as a gift.
- Donor-advised Fund (DAF): Puppies Behind Bars can be named as the beneficiary of the remainder of your “donor-advised fund.”
For More Information
Please contact Douglas Hamilton at Puppies Behind Bars for additional information to plan an estate gift:
Douglas J. Hamilton
Director of Development
(212) 680-9562
douglas@puppiesbehindbars.com
Puppies Behind Bars
263 West 38th Street
4th Floor
New York, NY 10018
