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Nebraska Cultural Endowment
Cultural trust fund is first of its kind in the country
In 1998, Nebraska became the first state to enact legislation establishing a cultural endowment to support both the arts and the humanities.
The Nebraska Humanities Council was completing a feasibility study testing the possibility of raising a privately funded endowment.
Additional information: 1. Johnny Carson gives $500,000 to endowment 2. Humanities Council gets $450,000 grant 3. J-Doe sculpture exhibit helps meet challenge grant 4. Endowment meets goal by raising $750,000 5. First-year earnings fund increases in grants and HRC
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EndowNebraska provides tax incentive to give
Gov. Dave Heineman signed legislation April 12, 2006, that gives both state and federal tax incentives to Nebraskans who make qualifying gifts to Nebraska’s charitable organizations. Introduced by State Sen. Matt Connealy and supported by a consortium of Nebraska non-profits and foundations, EndowNebraska is designed to benefit the endowment funds that sustain Nebraska communities and organizations. Here are some frequently asked questions and answers about EndowNebraska:
Why is a tax incentive needed for charitable gifting? The State of Nebraska is at a critical juncture in terms of its philanthropic potential. An estimated $258 billion will be transferred from one generation to the next over the next 50 years ($52 billion annually). Much of this wealth will be lost to taxes or to heirs residing outside the state.
What is the purpose of this new tax credit? To encourage Nebraskans to make gifts to qualified endowments with Nebraska charities that will benefit Nebraska. A qualified endowment means a permanent, irrevocable fund that is used for Nebraska charitable purposes. The funds are held by a Nebraska incorporated tax-exempt organization or held for the organization by a bank or trust company.
What is an endowment? It is somewhat like a savings account. With an endowment, only the investment earnings are used for to support an organizations programs and operating costs. Secondly, the principal amount of the fund—your charitable gift—will not be used. This assures continuous and growing funds to benefit your hometown or favorite charity.
When is the credit effective? For tax years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2006, and will terminate for tax years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2010.
How much is the credit? Nebraska residents, small business corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, estates and trusts are entitled to a 15 percent credit of the federal charitable contribution deduction for qualifying planned gifts, up to an annual maximum credit of $5,000. Nebraska corporations, estates and trusts are allowed a credit for 10 percent of the qualifying outright gifts up to an annual maximum credit of $5,000. The credit cannot be carried back or forward, and it is not a refundable credit. The credit can be used as a dollar for dollar offset of state income taxes in addition to using the federal itemized deduction, upon which the credit is calculated, to reduce federal income taxes.
What types of charitable gifts qualify? For Nebraska residents, small business corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, estates and trusts only qualifying planned gifts to endowments made using certain irrevocable planned gifts will qualify for the credit. The following planned giving methods will qualify: a charitable remainder unitrust or annuity trust, a charitable lead unitrust or annuity trust, a charitable gift annuity, a deferred charitable gift annuity, a charitable life estate agreement, a paid-up life insurance policy, or a pooled income fund trust. For Nebraska corporations, estates or trusts only qualifying outright gifts to endowments made with gifts of cash or other assets will qualify.
Can an endowment be established in someone’s honor or in memory of a loved one? Yes, the annual distributions made from an endowment fund can be designated to be made in the name you select.
For more information, visit the EndowNebraska website by clicking here.
If you are interested in making a planned gift to support the humanities, contact Pam Snow at the Nebraska Cultural Endowment (call 402-595-2722 or e-mail phsnow@nebraskaculturalendowment.org) or Chris Sommerich at the Nebraska Humanities Council (call 402-474-2131 ext. 105 or e-mail chris@nebraskahumanities.org).
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Johnny Carson, a Nebraska native and once king of late-night television, has given $500,000 to the Nebraska Cultural Endowment (NCE), the endowment board announced Jan. 27. It is the single largest cash gift so far toward the NCE’s fund-raising goal of $5 million. Carson, who lives in Malibu, Calif., confirmed his contribution in a personal phone call to endowment President Bob Nefsky, in response to a letter soliciting his support for the cultural endowment. “This gift is a wonderful endorsement of the public-private partnership of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment,” Nefsky said. “We are enormously grateful to Johnny Carson for his generous gift and his love of his home state. This money will go a long way to ensure the future of the arts and the humanities in Nebraska.” The first of its kind in the nation, the endowment was created in 1998 when the Nebraska Legislature set aside a $5 million endowment for both the arts and the humanities. When it is matched from other sources, the income from earnings on the principal is made available to support statewide programs of the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Arts Council. With the Carson gift, the NCE has raised about $2.37 million in donations, pledges and bequests. That includes a $450,00 challenge grant last year from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a three-to-one grant requiring a match of $1.35 million by July 31, 2005. Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Nebraska Humanities Council funds programs that explore Nebraska’s heritage, build community awareness and strengthen ties to cultural traditions at home and abroad. The Nebraska Arts Council provides grant support for artists and arts organizations, including arts education programs, touring artists, exhibits, artist fellowships and mentoring programs. Carson grew up in Norfolk and attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. For 30 years, he was the popular comic host of “The Tonight Show,” retiring in May 1992. He won six Emmy Awards, received the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) Governors’ Award in 1980 and a George Foster Peabody Award in 1986. In 1987 he was inducted into the ATAS Hall of Fame. In 1992, Carson won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the American Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1993 he was awarded the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award.
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The Nebraska Humanities Council in 2001 was awarded a $450,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support its community-building efforts through the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. “This is one of NEH's most competitive grant programs, funding only about twenty-five percent of applications,” said Edythe Manza, who is director of the NEH office of federal-state partnership. The NHC is one of just two state humanities councils to receive a challenge grant from the NEH in 2001. The three-to-one grant requires a match of $1.35 million, which must be raised by the end of July 2005. If the annual grant timetable is met, $75,000 will be available from the NEH in fiscal 2002, $150,000 in fiscal 2003 and $225,000 in fiscal 2004. The Nebraska Legislature established the
cultural endowment in 1998 by appropriating $5 million, with a match of
private funds to come from the NHC and the Nebraska Arts Council. Under
the legislation, the NHC would get 30 percent of the earnings, with 70
percent going to the NAC, making it the first state endowment to support
both the arts and the humanities.
Funds from the NEH grant will enable the NHC to support its “Building Nebraska Communities” initiative, which will help the council move from being a source of statewide cultural programming to an active participant in shaping the civic life of Nebraska. The goal is to help towns and neighborhoods draw upon their history and cultural heritage to plan for the future through council-conducted projects and grants. The NHC has the fundraising track record necessary to meet the requirements of the challenge grant. The council and its Nebraska Foundation for the Humanities have increased the annual campaign from $40,000 in 1992 to a projected goal of $380,000 in fiscal 2001. Jack Campbell and Gail Yanney are co-chairs of the endowment campaign, and former state Sen. LaVon Crosby is the honorary chair. It is the campaign’s goal to raise the $5 million in private funds needed to match the Legislature’s $5 million appropriation. “This challenge grant will be a great stimulus to complete our endowment goal, and it constitutes a resounding endorsement of our public-private partnership through the State of Nebraska, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and business, foundations and individuals throughout the state,” said Bob Nefsky, president of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
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A former member of both the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Arts Council, Ann selected the Nebraska Cultural Endowment as the non-profit organization to benefit from their purchase of “Jane Doecent” by artist Toddy Madsen. Ann and Gene invite you to join them in making a contribution that will help create a permanent endowment for the arts and the humanities in Nebraska. Although you may not decide to give an 8-foot sculpture, you can be equally creative. One donor has given the Nebraska Cultural Endowment a gift of life insurance. Another gave stock that actually gained in value last year! And several have included the endowment in their wills. The NEH challenge grant allows us to accept a broad range of gifts, including gift annuities, property and the earnings on property. If you want to know if your gift would qualify, contact Karen Levin at klevin_nce@altel.net or call (402) 595-2722. Make your gift to the Nebraska Cultural Endowment as easy as possible through a check or charge card. Please give today so that your children’s grandchildren can enjoy the Great Plains Chautauqua, artists and scholars in the school, the humanities speakers bureau and all that the humanities council and the arts council provide for the good life in Nebraska.
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Ann and Gene Spence took the opportunity
offered by
Omaha’s popular J-Doe city-wide sculpture exhibition last summer to help
the Nebraska Cultural Endowment match the $450,000 National Endowment for
the Humanities (NEH) challenge grant made in late November to the Nebraska
Humanities Council.
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The Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Arts Council raised $750,000 in private funds to match earnings during the first year of the $5 million state endowment established by the Legislature in 1998. The good news comes from Karen Levin, the executive director of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment (NCE). Results of the first year’s infusion of state earnings can be seen across the state. The Nebraska Arts Council (NAC) has given grants to 22 arts organizations in 13 communities to challenge them to build endowments. The NAC will award challenge grants to 28 organizations in nine communities in 2001. The Nebraska Humanities Council (NHC) responded to the needs expressed by Nebraskans during its 1999 assessment by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The council added funds to its grants program, the first increase since the reductions made after the 40 percent cut in NEH funding from Congress in 1995, and enhanced its Humanities Resource Center offerings, including the new Scholars-in-Residence program. During 2000, the council awarded two statewide grants and nine grants in six communities. Eight Scholars-in-Residence programs have been funded in seven communities. For copies of the Scholar-in-Residence brochure and request forms contact the NHC office or click here. For the NHC’s grant application form, contact the NHC office or click here.
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fund increases
in grants and HRC
The Nebraska Humanities Council’s first year of funding from the Nebraska Cultural Preservation Endowment supported a 41 percent increase in grants and a 60 percent increase in Humanities Resource Center programming. In 1998, the Nebraska Legislature created the innovative endowment fund with a $5 million appropriation, which was to be matched by private funds. Seventy percent of the endowment’s earnings go to the Nebraska Arts Council and 30 percent go to the Nebraska Humanities Council. The humanities council met the match, and the endowment reaped first-year earnings of $108,268. With the addition of private donations, grant funding will increase by $65,000 and the HRC funding will increase by $60,000. “The Cultural Endowment will enable us to respond to constituent requests to restore funding to our competitive grant program as well as make more of the programs in our Humanities Resource Center available to more Nebraskans, especially young people,” said NHC Chair Pam Hilton Snow of Grand Island. The grant program had been cut back since 1995, when Congress reduced the budget of the National Endowment for the Humanities by 40 percent. Former project directors and others in Nebraska’s cultural communities said the cutbacks had a negative effect on their own cultural programming. “The $65,000 increase means that we will be able to fund more grant requests and to fund more fully the grants made by the council,” Snow said. The $60,000 increase in the HRC will help support the new Scholars-in-Residence Program, which will fund a residency up to five days in schools and communities to conduct more extensive educational experiences than the speaker’s bureau programs can. A second new program will create a roster of living history presentations modeled after the popular Great Plains Chautauqua portraits of historical figures. The series will include such famous Nebraska figures as orator William Jennings Bryan and author Bess Streeter Aldrich. The third new initiative is a series of packaged programs developed around a particular theme. With the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition approaching, the council will be able to offer a package of programming that would include speakers, videos and a reading and discussion of books for an organization to pursue more in-depth exploration of the topic. “We are very grateful for the Legislature’s support of the Cultural Endowment,” Snow said. “Its impact on the lives of Nebraskans is only beginning to be felt. Its real influence will be seen years from now in our children who know more about their history and heritage as they prepare for full participatory citizenship in the 21st century.”
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Phone 402-474-2131 or e-mail nhc@nebraskahumanities.org |
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