Reunion Weekend 2023 Giving Brochure

MAKING AN IMPACT

D U R I N G

Y O U R

REUNION CELEBRATION

Making Your Best Reunion Gift Milestone reunions are when many alumni think about a special gift to recognize their time at Mercersburg. Most of these are class gifts to the Annual Fund. Special philanthropic opportunities like gifts to the endowment, gifts to establish an endowed fund, deferred gifts through an estate provision, or life-income gifts provide individuals with a permanent legacy at Mercersburg. All gifts further your class giving goals. What’s most important is that you participate with a gift that is comfortable for you. We can discuss options for you to consider, or you can reach out to your reunion committee at mercersburg.edu/reunionweekend.

Competitive? That’s like asking which is better, Irving or Marshall! So, here’s what you need to know about reunion giving:

Every class has a class reunion goal and a participation goal. These are based on gifts to the Annual Fund during the year of your reunion, between July 1 and June 30. You can make an extraordinary impact for your class and for our students, faculty, and staff, just by making your best possible gift to the Annual Fund!

Classes also recognize overall giving. This includes gifts to the endowment, documented estate provisions, life-income gifts, recurring gifts, and multi-year commitments made in the year of the reunion and over the four years after the reunion.

Ashley Frederick ’13 Celebrating a Reunion with a Special Gift

“I always choose to support Mercersburg, but when my reunion came around, I wanted to be able to celebrate this milestone in a special way—so I stretched and made a special gift. I was happy to be able to celebrate my class reunion with my support to Mercersburg.”

Ways to Give LEADERSHIP GIFTS TO THE 1893 CLUB ($1,893) AND WILLIAM MANN IRVINE SOCIETY ($10,000+) These are vitally important to providing our faculty with the necessary resources to deliver a top-quality experience to students. For more information on leadership giving societies, visit mercersburg.edu/giving.

MULTI-YEAR COMMITMENTS These are generally a five-year pledge made in the reunion year and for each of the four years after reunion. This helps with your class participation, the class reunion gift, and overall giving. Plus, it allows Mercersburg to count on your support as it delivers programs to students in the years ahead.

SECURITIES (STOCKS, BONDS, AND MUTUAL FUNDS) With a gift of appreciated securities, you can take a charitable deduction for an amount equal to the value of the security on the day the school receives it, and avoid capital gains tax that you would have paid had you sold it.

The tax savings can be much more significant than with a gift of cash.

How it works: Joe’s 50th reunion is in June, and he wants to make a special gift to honor that milestone as well as the special connections he’s reestablished with his classmates. In 1980, he bought shares of IBM for about $16 per share. It now trades for $135 per share. He decides to gift $10,000 shares of IBM to the Annual Fund. This is a larger gift than he ever imagined—and for shares that originally cost him less than $1,200. Additionally, he pays no capital gains tax because the shares are gifted to Mercersburg, and he receives a tax deduction for the full $10,000.

For more information, contact us at 717-328-6100 or giving@mercersburg.edu. When making a gift to Mercersburg Academy using an IRA or stocks, please let us know so we can recognize your gift promptly. Please also let us know if you want your gift used for a particular purpose.

AUTOMATIC RECURRING GIFTS (MONTHLY, QUARTERLY, OR ANNUALLY) During your reunion, you can decide to spread gift payments out over a period of time, allowing you to make a stretch gift.

GIFTS THROUGH DONOR-ADVISED FUNDS

IRA CHARITABLE ROLLOVER If you are a U.S. taxpayer and at least 70 1/2 years of age, you can make gifts to Mercersburg from your IRA without having to count those funds as part of your adjusted gross income. Consequently, you don’t have to pay taxes on the gifted amount.

Distributions count toward your required minimum distribution (RMD). They must be made directly from the IRA trustee to Mercersburg, and the individual maximum is $100,000 per calendar year. This is a great reason to consider using your IRA (instead of cash) to make a charitable gift.

This can streamline household giving. Ask your fund manager to transfer funds to Mercersburg (TIN#: 23-1365963).

MARSHALL AND IRVING ALLIANCE

ENDOWMENT

You can become a member by including Mercersburg in your estate plan. Provisions that have been documented with the school will count toward the class’s overall gift.

Information is included in this brochure.

In addition to making your best Annual Fund gift to count toward your class gift, establishing or contributing to an endowed fund allows you to leave a permanent legacy at Mercersburg. These gifts count toward the class’s overall gift and can be made to support important school needs like financial aid, academic programs, faculty support, and more.

Gnim Bazim ’17 Maximize Your Gift

“It was easy to set up my recurring gift online. Whether you do it monthly, quarterly, or annually, recurring gifts are a great way to maximize your gift and guarantee that you are counted in each year.”

Members of the Marshall and Irving Alliance provide for Mercersburg Academy in their estate plans. Examples can include a life-income gift (charitable gift annuity, trust), beneficiary designation (IRA, 401(k), etc.), making Mercersburg the owner and/ or beneficiary of a whole/universal life insurance policy, or naming Mercersburg Academy in a will. Sharing your plans with the school helps us to better understand your wishes, plan for the future, and recognize your intent in a way that is comfortable for you. Documented provisions will count toward the overall class reunion gift.

Phil Dunmire ’64 Benefits to Giving Back Whether serving his country in the Army, his community, or Mercersburg, Phil knows that giving back provides countless benefits. He has served as a class agent for his reunion committee, as a member of the Alumni Council, and as a member of the Board of Regents. Phil and his wife, Linda, are also proud that their daughter, Heather, is a member of the Class of 2001. Because of these strong ties and the importance of his Mercersburg education to Phil’s career and life experiences, they have decided to remember Mercersburg in their estate plan as a critical resource for future students—maybe even their grandchild.

“Efficiency is the real reason that Linda and I decided to designate Mercersburg Academy as a beneficiary for part of my IRA when we are both gone. Remaining assets in this account will be taxed at the highest income tax rates should they pass to our children. So it simply made good sense, from a tax perspective, to have it flow to Mercersburg instead and avoid that tax. Another factor is that, while we continue to give to the Annual Fund, we want to leave a larger sum to the school eventually. The development staff at Mercersburg can undoubtedly be helpful to you and your tax and legal advisers in uncovering similar benefits connected with your estate and philanthropic planning.”

Charitable Gift Annuity A CGA is a simple contract between you and up to one other individual and Mercersburg Academy when you make an irrevocable gift to the school. In exchange, Mercersburg guarantees a fixed annual payment to you for life. Payments are backed by all the assets of the school, assuring you that payments will continue throughout your lifetime. Annuities can be written for one or two lives and the amount of the annuity payments is based on the age of the recipient(s) (minimum age to receive income is 65). Rates below reflect a single life annuity made with cash. Utilizing appreciated securities to fund your CGA offers additional benefits.

Gift Amount

Age

% Rate

Lifetime Annual Annuity Payment

Charitable Deduction

$10,000

65

4.8

$480

$4,051

$10,000

68

5.1

$510

$4,248

$10,000

73

5.7

$570

$4,650

$10,000

78

6.5

$650

$5,090

$10,000

83

7.7

$770

$5,466

James Whitten ’63 Benefits of a CGA Jim came to Mercersburg Academy as a boy from Ohio. Even after a lifetime of working and living across the country, Mercersburg remains the place where he got his start.

Over the years, Jim has completed five CGAs with Mercersburg. Jim says CGAs have many benefits, but the best part in his experience is that “it provides you with a tax deduction along with a secure fixed income stream as part of your retirement that you cannot outlive. In addition, establishing a CGA with appreciated securities offsets capital gains taxation, allowing you to make a bigger gift from assets that initially cost you less to purchase. Of course, the most important part of this is that you are doing something meaningful for Mercersburg.”

“You get to a certain point in your life when you want to make a difference to those places that have mattered to you, and Mercersburg is certainly one of those places for me.”

Charitable Remainder Trust With a CRT, you irrevocably transfer assets into a trust that generates income for you and/or others, for a lifetime or a term of years. The trust is backed with the assets held within it and offers the flexibility to use a variety of assets (cash, securities, and real estate). The balance remaining at the end of the trust is distributed to Mercersburg for the purposes you specify.

Income is valued annually, based upon a percentage rate.

HOW IT WORKS: Bob and his spouse Betty, both age 68, bought property for $100,000 in the mid-1970s with the intention of building a home. They no longer plan to do that, but the value of the property has tripled to $300,000, and they don’t want to pay capital gains on it. Bob wants to make a reunion gift and asks what could be done. By forming a CRT and transferring ownership of the property to the CRT, which subsequently sells the property, Bob and Betty do not pay capital gains tax and receive a $113,469 income tax deduction—more than they originally paid for the property. They will receive a 5 percent payment based upon the annual value of the CRT (first-year income of about $13,000). Bob receives credit for a $300,000 reunion gift. Bob and Betty never imagined they could make such a gift while also increasing their retirement income. They are excited that at the end of their lives, what’s left in the CRT will establish a scholarship in their names to help deserving students with financial need.

The Annual Fund touches every aspect of student life and is Mercersburg’s greatest fundraising priority. Our goal this year is $3.8 million in support, representing 10 percent of the school’s operating budget. Together with tuition and endowment income, your Annual Fund gifts underwrite the school year and ensure that every student has a transformative experience.

Your gift to the Annual Fund is part of a collective investment in Mercersburg’s 445 students and 255 faculty and staff members. The Annual Fund supports: chevron-right

Financial aid

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An innovative curriculum

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Faculty and staff professional development

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Distinguished campus speakers

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International travel

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Twenty-seven varsity athletic teams

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Vibrant performing and fine arts

And so much more that makes a Mercersburg education extraordinary!

Reunion Chairs For a full list of reunion volunteers, please visit

mercersburg.edu/reunionweekend

Reunion Records Reunion Year

Attendance Record

Class

Annual Fund Record

Class

Donor Record

Class

50th

52

1948

$228,728

1957

64

1964

45th

45

1949

$113,962

1974

55

1972

40th

33

1979

$190,095

1982

49

1979

35th

33

1954

$222,872

1982

51

1965

30th

37

1962

$126,214

1976

58

1972

25th

37

1963

$112,896

1979

59

1979

20th

51

1999

$101,450

1989

58

1999

15th

23

2003

$58,393

1997

62

1999

10th

43

2007 & 2008

$60,005

2008

65

2007

5th

49

2011 & 2014

$16,267

2013

66

2013

Ways to Get Involved Put June 8-11, 2023, on your calendar and plan to attend.

Find out more about Reunion Weekend at mercersburg.edu/reunionweekend.

Planning to attend? Let us know at reunions@mercersburg.edu.

MAKE YOUR GIFT at mercersburg.edu/give or mail your check to the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations 100 Academy Drive Mercersburg, PA 17236

If you have questions about how you can help or want more information about gift options that are a good fit for you, please contact us at 717-328-6100.

JUNE 8-11, 2023 | mercersburg.edu/reunionweekend

A Note from Your Alumni Council President On behalf of the Alumni Council, I invite you to attend your class reunion on June 8-11, 2023. Reunion Weekend is packed with activities, time to reconnect with friends, great food, entertainment, and the beauty of our campus in June. Reunion is truly a special time to take pride in our school for what it has meant to each of us.

As members of the Long Blue Line, you and I enjoy a sense of community and caring that endures long after we’ve left the ’Burg. Though our campus has evolved over time, the same traditions and mission remain. It is this remarkable legacy that unites us. Our school is strengthened not only by our rich history but also by our time, talent, and financial support. We are essential pieces of this life-changing place. As you plan for your reunion, there are many ways you can provide for Mercersburg’s students, faculty, and staff, just as others did for us and for those enjoying this unique education today.

Your class reunion committee is already hard at work to plan a weekend not to be missed. So whether you attended Mercersburg five years ago or 50 years ago, come back to celebrate. I look forward to seeing you and welcoming you home!

Ann Marie Bliley-Ester ’01 Alumni Council President