For the love of Rover and Kitty
Local pet lovers usually put the Medicine Hat SPCA on the top of their lists when it comes to legacy giving, but according to organization’s executive director Katie Ayres that’s about all these individual donors have in common.
“There is quite a variety of reasons people give for wanting to make a legacy donation to us,” she confirms. “All of course, in our case, are animal lovers. But sometimes they don’t have adult children or grandchildren, and they do have some kind of estate, whether it’s the sale of a home or whatever it might be, and they want to make sure when they pass the money is going to something worthwhile ... For other people it’s just a feel-good thing. They want to be able to share their wealth and pass it along to assist us in doing our charitable work in whatever way possible.”
Ayres says one aspect of legacy giving to the SPCA is there is often really no way to plan for when these types of donations come in.
“If they can consult with us prior to making their Wills, we can put that wording into their estate planning,” explains Ayres. “Then they can say I want this money to specifically go toward your spay and neuter initiative, or to your rescue and rehabilitation program, or whatever it might be you want this to go toward. But because it is unexpected money a lot of the time, there is a couple of things we will typically use it for.
“Most often, if it is under say $10,000 or $20,000 something like that, we will put it toward our day-to-day operations, because that is one of our biggest financial challenges. We don’t get government money for that or any special fund from anyone for that; so we rely on donations. Anything larger than that, we try to have a conversation at the board level on what would be the best use of the funds. Right now, considering where we are at with our building, it typically goes toward our building renovation account or the purchase of new kennel equipment.”
Ayres says she, her board, and her staff are grateful for all the donations the Medicine Hat SPCA receives, whether from an annual charitable contribution, a memorial donation or a legacy bequeathment, but with a legacy bequeathment there is an opportunity for someone in the community who loves animals to make an outsized impact.
“We are so grateful for anyone who considers us both for legacy giving and memorial donations,” she says. “It is one of the main ways we are able to continue to operate, by having those influxes of cash and unexpected gifts. It really makes a big difference in our ability to keep running in Medicine Hat.”