Planned giving | Montreal Museum of fine arts

Why donate to the MMFA?

Planned gift create the future, and the Museum invites you to be part of this journey!

The MMFA collaborates with over 450 organizations to help the community
The MMFA has one of the most extensive art-museum based educational programs in Canada
The MMFA has been sustained over its history by bequests
The MMFA is an enduring institution with more than 150 years of history
The MMFA is the only Canadian museum to offer an encyclopedic collection of 43,000 works
The MMFA transmits its artistic heritage to future generations

How to make a donation?

Create a legacy

Giving to the Museum is above all a gesture that comes from the heart, motivated by the desire to make a difference socially, communally, culturally, and to our collective histories.

Most people will make or adjust their will at some point in their lives. Today, you have an opportunity to support a cause that you hold dear, the MMFA.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts encourages you to support it by way of a general donation, thus allowing the Museum to put your generous gift to use as needed in future projects that benefit our entire community in a lasting way.

You can help fund a specific area of the Museum’s activities that resonates with your values:

The museum’s large-scale projects
Education and wellness
Promoting the collection
Presentation of exhibitions
The acquisition of artworks

We invite you to contact us in order to determine the appropriate wording in your will, to ensure your donation fills a Museum need.

Types of gifts by will:

Universal legacy: donation of all your assets
Legacy by universal title: donation of a share or percentage of your assets
Specific bequest: donation of a specified asset (work of art, listed securities, etc.)
Residual bequest: donation of all the assets remaining after specific bequests or a legacy by universal title have been bequeathed

The advantages of a legacy gift:

Retain all your financial resources throughout your lifetime
Control your assets until your death
Adjust your donation as life circumstances dictate
Receive a tax receipt that can be applied to your estate for up to 100% of the net revenue the year of your death (the surplus can be applied to the preceding year)

Creating a testament is a significant gesture. You may need to consult with your financial advisors (financial planners, accountant and tax expert) and legal advisors (notary or lawyer). These professionals can explain how to plan your donation judiciously. They will also inform you of financial advantages that apply to your specific situation

More than a form of protection, life insurance is also an investment vehicle that offers high yield, guaranteed returns for the MMFA. The sum paid out following your death will exceed the sum that you invested in premiums throughout your lifetime.

There are three ways of donating to the Museum through a life insurance policy:

Name the Museum as your life insurance policy beneficiary
Upon your death a tax receipt equal to the total death benefit will be remitted to your estate. You can also multiply your donation by taking out a new insurance policy and naming the Museum as its beneficiary.

EXAMPLE
Disbursements in your lifetime (premiums of $2000 x 15 years) \| 30 000 $
Total tax receipt \| 200 000 $
Tax credit for your estate (assuming a rate of 50 %) \| 100 000 $
Tax savings for your estate \| 100 000 $ (for a cost of 30 000 $)

Open a new life insurance policy and permanently assign the Museum as its beneficiary
With every premium payment, you will obtain a tax receipt for the amount of this premium and upon your death, the MMFA Foundation will receive the capital.
Permanently transfer the ownership of your existing life insurance policy to the MMFA
You will receive a tax receipt for the market value of your life insurance. If you have not finished paying the policy premiums, you will also receive a tax receipt for each premium you subsequently pay.

Donations of life insurance policies offer many advantages:

Maintain most of your financial resources throughout your lifetime;
Invest a marginal amount that will transform into a significant donation;
Benefit from a tax receipt that adapts to your circumstances;
Make a major donation with a minimal payment without depriving your heirs.

Charitable annuities guarantee you an income, part or all of which will be tax exempt throughout your lifetime or for a predetermined period. This form of donation is simple to arrange: A portion of your contribution will go towards purchasing an annuity through an insurance company, and the other portion will be your donation. This is an interesting option for senior donors 65 years and older who want a guaranteed, reliable income.

Charitable annuities offer many advantages:

Lifelong, guaranteed income;
Available annual revenue is maintained or increased;
Benefit from minimal or no taxes on annuities;
No need to worry about asset management.

With a charitable remainder trust, you can donate assets (cash, property titles or assets) while retaining the revenue generated by these assets for either a predetermined period or throughout your lifetime, according to the conditions set when the trust was established. At the end of this period or upon your death, the residue of the trust is transferred to the MMFA.

Trust assets are entrusted to a fiduciary – an individual or entity capable of managing the trust. A trust can also be set up so as to guarantee revenue to your surviving spouse. In that case, the assets will be transferred to the Museum only after the death of both spouses.

Charitable remainder trusts offer many advantages:

Benefit from transferred assets as a beneficiary of the trust;
Receive a receipt for your donation equal to the expected value of the transferred assets right away;
No need to worry about asset management.

Donations of publicly traded securities are virtually immediate. This donation can also be differed if it is left in a will.

Donations of publicly traded securities take various forms:

Shares
Bonds
Units of a mutual fund
Other publicly traded securities

There are many advantages to donating securities:

No capital gains to pay on the appreciation of the market value and the acquisition cost of the securities;
Tax receipt equal to the market value at the time of the transfer of the securities;
A quick, simple process that takes a few days.

Example

-	Sale of securities and cash donation	Don des titres
Fair market value	$10,000	$10,000
Share acquisition cost	$2,000	$2,000
Capital gain	$8,000	$8,000
Taxable gain (50 %)	$4,000	$4,000
Tax payable on the gain^*	$2,000	$0
Tax savings on the gain	$0	$2,000
Donation tax credit^**	$5,000	$5,000
Total tax savings	$3,000	$7,000
Net cost of donation	$7,000	$3,000

^* To simplify the examples, the tax rate used is 50%.
^** The donation tax credit rate has been rounded to 50%. It does not take into account the first $200 of donations or all tax situations.

For more information:

Dalia Younsi
Director - Major Gifts and Planned Giving
Foundation of the Museum of Fine Arts
T. 514-965-3692
dyounsi@mbamtl.org

Let us hear from you!

Giving to the Museum lets me feel that I’m participating in something bigger. The Museum gave me a desire to share: It allowed me a new lease on life, a way of fulfilling myself.

Yves Fontaine

whose planned gift will give access to education

A museum that defies the passage of time

The Museum has defied the passage of time by handing down a love for art and culture across eight generations. The MMFA is a not a government-run museum but non-profit organization, and must maintain a level of self-financing unequalled in Canada, one that accounts for close to 58% of its annual operating budget. In addition, its artwork acquisitions are almost 100% self-financed.

Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

Credit

Breakdown of the MMFA’s annual revenues

60%

Self-generated revenues and donations

40%

Quebec government support

Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion
Photo MMFA, Denis Farley.

What if this Rembrandt masterpiece were not at the Museum?

Donations transform the Museum

From yesterday...

In 1949, the Museum received the gift of a masterpiece by the renowned painter Rembrandt. That historic gift was the result of a bequest by Mrs. R. MacD. Paterson, daughter of Montreal banker Richard Bladworth Angus. An avid collector of Old Masters, he gave this emblematic work to his daughter, who later chose to bequeath it to the Museum.

Credit

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Portrait of a Young Woman (Magdalena van Loo?), about 1668, oil on canvas, 56.3 x 48 cm.
Mrs. R. MacD. Paterson Bequest.

...To today

The most beautiful treasures in our collections have to come to us by way of exceptional people making a gift to the Museum in their wills.

In 2016, the MMFA received two significant bequests. The first, from Margarita Ciurana, helped reinstall the international art collections in the recently inaugurated Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace. The second donation, from Ginette Trépanier, made possible the acquisition of a powerful work by the contemporary international artist Jean-Michel Othoniel for this new pavilion. Thanks to these devoted members who had provided for a general donation, the Museum was able to fund these two major projects.

At this time of life, I've come to realize that philanthropy brings me the joy that comes with contributing, however modestly, to the well-being of others and of leaving my mark.

Michel Phaneuf

created an artwork acquisition fund in his will