How would you like to receive $60,000 a year while living in your home and giving to charity at the same time?

There are many thoughts of what to do with your property once you die. With this program, you will be paid a nice annual income while ensuring that your property will go to a needy charity.

Jennifer S. Forsyth wrote the August 16, 2006 article, “Charities Begin at Home” in The Wall Street Journal, which explains how charities are urging you to follow the example of a retired California couple.

The article explains the situation of Raymond (90 years old) and Eleanor (84 years old) Devereaux, whom in 1984 bought 11 acres atop a small mountain about 35 miles from San Diego, for $100,000. By last year the log home property, with views of Cleveland National Forest, was worth $1.3 million.

Planning ahead, the Devereauxs decided to give their mountaintop home to charity. In exchange for donating their property to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, they receive a $60,000-a-year annuity and the right to live there for the remainder of their lives.

This deal also helped the Devereauxs avoid some capital-gains taxes, while eliminating estate taxes on the property and receiving a federal income-tax deduction.”

"We get quite a good income from it and a tax break. I knew about Consumers Union and always thought well of them," said Mr. Devereaux.

“The Devereauxs are part of a growing wave of philanthropists looking to avoid or reduce bigger tax bites created by the rapid run-up in real estate values. Nonprofit groups, which once shied away from real-estate donations because they feared getting stuck with swamp land or lacked the expertise to handle complex land transactions, are seizing the opportunity with new marketing programs. Their target: World War II-era property owners finalizing estate planning and baby-boomers who have seen their second-home and other real-estate investments balloon in value.”

Charities, like Consumers Union, often sell donated properties quickly and obtain the proceeds, though some charities that provide community services may be able to inhabit a building for their programs.

Some other charities, such as the Trust for Public Land, which preserves open space, and Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for low-income residents, desperately need land.

Not every property will be accepted for charity, though. In fact, most properties will be denied “charity” status.

“Charities still turn down many offers of real estate, perhaps as high as 80%, some experts estimate. They are likely to turn down property with environmental problems, that can't be sold quickly or that has multiple owners who aren't in agreement on the donation. If a donor wishes to give property that has a mortgage, typically the charity must be willing to pay off the mortgage, known in the industry as a bargain sale, says Caroline Camougis, co-managing director of Delphi Partners, a New York-based real-estate donation advisory firm.”

Still, an increasing number of people are starting to apply for their property to be used as charity once they die.

You get to make a great charitable donation, which makes you feel good; the huge tax break doesn’t hurt either.