By Elizabeth McCray, nonprofit strategies manager

At the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, we understand that you want to help your clients give in extraordinary and fulfilling ways. That is why we accept universal, term and whole life insurance policies as a way for Minnesotans to give back and create a lasting legacy.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

Just this January, we worked with a donor to turn his life insurance policy into a charitable gift to support the needs of his favorite nonprofit. He took out the policy years ago when he had his own business. Eventually, the business dissolved and he no longer needed the policy. He decided to donate his policy to the nonprofit where he volunteers and serves as treasurer.

To donate the policy to the organization, he named the organization as the beneficiary. The organization has a nonprofit endowment fund with the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, and the death benefit will go to that fund when he passes.

We also worked with professional advisors and their clients on gifts of life insurance. In a similar situation, an advisor referred a donor to the Foundation who serves on the board of a local nonprofit. His fellow board members were planning future gifts, and his advisor suggested he consider donating his life insurance policy.

In this case, we became the beneficiary or owner of the life insurance policy, and when the donor passes, his beloved nonprofit organization will receive the funds from the policy via an endowment it has set up with the Foundation.