What is the Heritage Club?
The Heritage Club is a very special group of men and women who believe in the YMCA and who want to ensure that this proud tradition and heritage is available to future generations for years to come.

The Heritage Club is a program to build in long range financial stability for the YMCA. Through this program individuals include the YMCA in their long range plans. By making these plans now, there are tax advantages which can increase the value of your estate and make it possible for you to do much more for the YMCA than you might have guessed.

The gifts to the Heritage Club are never spent, but generate income into the future. Because of that guaranteed stream of income, the YMCA can continue to expand strengthening the spirits, minds and bodies of all of its members and provide thousands of opportunities for personal growth.

How Do I Qualify?
To qualify for the West Cook YMCA Heritage Club you must make an outright gift of at least $500 to the Endowment Fund, and also formally indicate that you will include the YMCA in your future financial planning. There are a number of options you may wish to consider including:

l Bequests
l A Charitable Remainder Trust
l Life Insurance
l A Charitable Lead Trust
l An outright gift

Each of these methods of underwriting YMCA programs has varied estate or income tax benefits that can maximize your gift to the YMCA while providing you with lower after-tax costs. Your financial advisor or financial planner can help you decide how this general information applies to your specific circumstances.

Why consider becoming a Heritage Club member?
The West Cook YMCA has served the community for more than 100 years. During those many years, thousands of men, women and children have found not only physical fitness but spiritual and emotional fitness through their interaction. The YMCA has endured because of the strength of its core values of responsibility, honesty, respect, and caring. These constants have allowed the YMCA to meet the increasingly diverse needs of a very diverse community throughout our existence.

By considering a legacy of support for the YMCA, you are extending its positive influence beyond your imagination, into a future of possibilities we can only guess at now.

Please contact Scott Gaalaas at 708-434-0200 or Jan Pate at 708-434-0203 for more information.