College of Charleston

Annual Gifts

Annual gifts made to the Friends of the Library help meet the library’s current priority needs in many areas. Flexible, unrestricted funds enable the library staff to strategically acquire new materials and respond quickly to the ever-changing needs of the library. These gifts also support the Friends of the Library public programming efforts.

Gifts to the Friends of the Library may be in the form of cash, stock, or credit card payments. Pledges can be made in one sum and paid in monthly or quarterly installments. Matching gifts from a donor’s employer are added to the Friends of the Library and to an individual’s giving totals.

Endowed Gifts

An endowed fund is established in perpetuity and has a continuing impact on the life of the library, and thus the entire College of Charleston. Endowed funds may be established to support the purchase or preservation of library materials, a lecture series, or a host of other purposes.

For more than 300 years, library endowments have been essential to growing the library’s collection. Book endowments can be created in the subject area of your choice, and each book from the endowment bears a bookplate. These funds develop breadth and depth in specific subject areas. For example, the Sottile Way Fund has enabled us to supplement collections about Italy and the Italian language while the Richard Haymaker Endowment enriches our English and American literature collections.

A named endowment requires a minimum gift of $50,000. The College of Charleston Foundation invests endowments carefully to achieve a healthy rate of return that provides for both current needs and long-term growth. If you establish an endowed fund, the library will provide you with periodic financial updates and reports.

Honor With Books

Honor with Books provides a meaningful way to pay lasting tribute to a special person in your life while making an important contribution to future generations of students who depend on the College’s library. When you make a minimum contribution of $100 to the Honor with Books Fund, a personalized bookplate is placed in one newly purchased book in the subject area of your choosing (Arts, Literature and Languages, Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, Business or Education).

Your gift supports a critical acquisitions need as you remember a loved one or mark a significant milestone. Honor with Books for Graduations, Class Reunions, Memorial Tributes, Professional Honors and Retirements, Weddings and Anniversaries, and Birthdays.

The Opportunities:

$100 places your bookplate in one newly purchased volume.
$500 places your bookplate in six newly purchased volumes.

Gift Planning and Bequests

A planned gift can be structured to fulfill a long-desired philanthropic interest and may also allow you to increase income, save taxes, and make a legacy gift to the College of Charleston library that might not otherwise be possible.

A bequest is the result of careful planning for the best philanthropic use of assets that have taken a lifetime of work, care, and stewardship to build or preserve. The bequest may be a specific sum or a percentage of an estate that may provide a very significant gif for the library.

Charitable Gift Annuities are a fixed-income plan that pays the donor or another person (or both) guaranteed annual income for life. The rate of payout is determined by the beneficiary’s age.

Charitable Remainder Trusts are flexible financial instruments that enable the donor to claim a tax deduction the year the gift is made, provide a stream of income for the donor or a designated individual during their lifetime, and ultimately leave a significant gift for the library. You may fund a trust with a gift of cash, appreciated securities, real estate, or other non-cash assets.