Leaving a Lasting Legacy

Join the Access Fund Open Gates Society today. Making a legacy gift to Access Fund helps to ensure that the vitality and tradition of climbing live on and that our treasured climbing areas remain protected for the next generation. Some of us may never develop a climbing route, put up a first ascent, write a guidebook, or climb 5.15. But there are other ways to contribute to the story of climbing in America. Planning a deferred gift to Access Fund is an easy way to establish your own legacy of climbing access, and give back to the climbing experience. Planned giving is not just for the wealthy or those with expertise in financial planning. Rather, it can be a very simple way to leave behind a gift of any value to support the work and mission of Access Fund.

 
Legacy Society Stamp

We invite you to read through the various ways you can leave assets, retirement income, or a portion of your estate to Access Fund:

  • Consider leaving assets to Access Fund in your will or estate plan. This is the easiest way to leave a legacy gift and provide crucial funds to help Access Fund protect and conserve climbing areas for years to come.

    How It Works:

    Name Access Fund in your will or estate planning documents.

    Access Fund can be named for a specific amount, a percentage of your estate, or a specific remainder of your estate after all other bequests to friends and loved ones are taken care of.

    Here is some sample language that can be used to provide a bequest: “I give, devise, and bequeath to Access Fund, a nonprofit organization located in Boulder, Colorado, with the tax identification number 94-3131165, (the sum of $____________)/ (the following property ____________)/ (or ____________ percent of my estate) as an unrestricted gift to be used at the discretion of the Board of Directors of Access Fund for the general purposes of Access Fund.”

  • Name Access Fund as a beneficiary of your insurance policy, retirement plan (a particularly wise gift for tax purposes), or annuity. Access Fund can help you and your advisors with this process. For sample language, see the Bequests section of this brochure.

  • You can establish gifts that provide Access Fund with investment income now, and after a specified period of time, you can either return assets to your heirs or pass those assets to Access Fund in the form of a legacy gift. This type of gift can be a powerful income and estate planning tool that helps you achieve multiple financial and charitable goals.

    How It Works:

    Create a trust according to your unique needs and wishes by working with Access Fund’s development team and your own advisors.

    Receive tax benefits.

    Depending on the type of trust you choose, income from the trust is directed to you or donated to Access Fund.

  • You can easily make a gift of real estate, business interests, or other assets to Access Fund. A tangible asset such as a house, art, or a vehicle can be donated to Access Fund in your will. There are often tax advantages to doing so. Contact us to find an option that is the right fit for you.

    How It Works:

    Name Access Fund as the beneficiary of a specific tangible item or portion of your estate in your will or estate planning documents. You may avoid costly gift and estate taxes.

    You can specify certain conditions that must be met before an asset or share of your estate is transferred; for example: “If my wife, [Susan], is not living at the time of my death, I give her share of my estate to Access Fund, a nonprofit organization in Boulder, Colorado.”

    Your gift will be liquidated and used by Access Fund to honor your wishes.

 

Open Gates Society Spotlight: Leslie Brown

When Leslie Brown started climbing in the 1980s, she and her friends would make the 5-hour drive on a Friday from their homes in Connecticut to New Hampshire’s renowned rock walls. That was until she learned how great the climbing was in her own backyard. One place she came to love was Ragged Mountain, a basalt ridge with striking vertical cracks in the central region of the state. 

But not long after she started climbing there, the future of the area’s premier crag became uncertain due to changes in ownership and management, prompting Brown and a group of climbers to form Friends of Ragged Mountain, work with Access Fund to protect the Main Cliff property, and after a decade of what Brown calls “sweat equity,” they secured permanent public access to the area.

It was that dedication, that experience in putting in the sweat equity necessary for  protecting access to climbing that led Leslie to include Access Fund in her estate plans. “As I got older, I started looking around at the things I love to do or like to do. There are some that have great philanthropic support and some, like climbing, that were less developed, less supported. These cliffs can be loved to death.” Community, and strong ties to it, help inspire Leslie’s support of our work. For Ragged Mountain, Leslie says, “if we didn’t have a group to get together and protect those resources, they would become asphalt.”

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We are ready to help you identify and craft a plan to ensure that your legacy gift is invested in Access Fund’s mission, according to your personal and philanthropic goals. Please contact us for more information on planning a deferred gift to Access Fund or submit your letter of intent here.

[PHOTO CREDIT] Sierras, © Jerry Dodrill

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