Brad Houle, a prominent member of the Red Cross Cascades regional board, joined other forward-thinking donors as a member of the Legacy Society. Brad works as a financial consultant to individuals, nonprofits, and foundations at a capital management firm, so he knows how essential the services that the American Red Cross provides are to the people who need them most. Beyond that, his tax-wise and savvy monetary management expertise is why he chose to generously support the Red Cross through a beneficiary designation.
A beneficiary designation is one of the simplest ways to make a gift to the Red Cross. It is as easy as filling out a form. You can specify the individuals and charities you want to support, and you can also specify the percentage of the assets you want each beneficiary to receive. Beneficiary designations are available when giving the following assets: retirement assets, life insurance, commercial annuity contracts, bank and investment accounts.
Brad explained, “The reason I chose a beneficiary designation instead of making a gift to the Red Cross in my other estate planning documents, is that it is quite easy to go in and change the beneficiary on your IRA and leave a percentage to the organization. I manage money for a living. I thought it was a complicated process, but when I got down to it, it only took around seven minutes.”
As vice chair of the board of directors, he campaigns to raise money in the Oregon Cascades Region, and he leads by example. “If this is something that you’re going to ask of others and you’re going to advocate for others to do, you have to do it yourself.” Inspired by altruistic acts at an early age, the Red Cross has always been a part of Brad’s life as his mother worked as a Blood Services employee in Montana. When considering what he wanted to support at the Red Cross, he chose to leave his gift undesignated, or where needed most. “The less you put strings on the money the better it is for the organization. If you trust this organization enough to leave them money or a legacy gift, then I am going to trust them to do whatever they think is right with the money.”
If you would like information about how you can support our mission and help those in need by creating your own legacy like Brad Houle and others have done, please learn more about beneficiary designations, or contact our Gift Planning Office at, 1-800-797-8022, ext. 5, giftplanning@redcross.org.