My mother died last year. She had specified that a chunk of her estate be donated to a museum. The estate was split between my brother and me, and we are each to donate half of the specified donation amount. All fine with us.
My question is, How do I give my half of it ON BEHALF of her, so that it is clear she was the true donor, not me? The canned phrases in the museum’s webpage say IN HONOR OF or IN MEMORY OF, which isn’t the same as ON BEHALF OF.
I’m nitpicking semantics for two reasons. First, the money comes from her and she is the one whose name should be listed as the donor. Second, I do not want to be put on a donor list for endless future solicitations.
My husband still gets begging letters from a charity that his deceased father helped. He is not a “Jr.” or “III” son.
Easy. I had to dive deep into this stuff as executor of my late parents’ estate. You are able to make an anonymous donation (an estate lawyer could answer any questions). That way “in honor of” or “in memory of” would be attributed to your parent but the recipient of the donation would not have the information to solicit you. Since you may need records for tax deduction purposes there needs to be an intermediary who would relay that to you. This is depending on the amount and whether you itemize, or are, for example, in a state like Michigan which allows substantial tax credits for donations to some non-profits. Or if you will be offsetting inheritance tax burdens by the donation disbursement.