Honor Your Values. Plant Your Legacy.

Become a founding member of The Overstory by including SNW in your estate plan.

When you include Sustainable Northwest in your estate plans, you become part of a legacy — a lasting force for productive landscapes and rural communities.

The Overstory is our way of honoring those who make a future-focused commitment to our mission with a gift of $10,000 or more in their estate plan. By becoming a member of The Overstory, you will be helping to conserve natural resources, sustain working landscapes, and create lasting opportunities for rural communities — for generations to come.

Your story doesn’t end — it takes root.

Join The Overstory and help ensure that the landscapes and communities you cherish today will be thriving well into the future.

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

— Warren Buffett

What’s The Overstory?

The Overstory refers to the tallest trees in the forest that create the uppermost canopy. By providing protection for the saplings growing up in their shade, they play a critical role in influencing the health of the understory vegetation.

When you include SNW in your estate plan with a gift of $10,000 or more, you’ll be joining a circle of visionary donors that share your values for today and hopes for tomorrow. Members receive:

  • We’ll include your estate in our annual report and donor acknowledgements.

  • SNW will host an annual event to honor members of this exclusive circle.

  • You receive a commemorative gift to enjoy in honor of your planned contribution.

  • You’ll enjoy the quiet satisfaction of knowing your legacy lives on with the land you love.

 FAQs

    • Reduce potential estate taxes and facilitate asset distribution to the people and causes you care about.

    • Avoid familial conflicts.

    • Ensure your wishes are honored and causes you support are funded.

    • Leave a clear plan of your goals and desires reducing the administrative burden to your loved ones.

  • There are a number of options for including SNW in your estate giving. You can:

    • Designate a bequest of a particular amount or a percentage of cash or stock in your estate plan.

    • Name SNW as the beneficiary of your annuity, 401(k), life insurance policy, or IRA.

    • Leave instructions with your Donor Advised Fund to distribute gifts to SNW over a period of time.

    • Donate land, real estate, automobiles, or other tangible assets. For this option, please reach out to us directly.

  • You can minimize tax liability by reducing assets from your taxable estate by donating them to charitable organizations. Talk to your financial planner to develop a strategy that puts you in control of your legacy.

  • When you include Sustainable Northwest in your will, trust, or estate plan, have your advisor reach out to us to let us know about the potential gift. Our team will develop a plan on how to best implement your gift according to your wishes when the gift is made from your estate.

  • No. Members of The Overstory will receive recognition in our printed annual report (if desired), but a receipt will not be issued until the contribution is transferred to SNW, at which point formal acknowledgement will be sent to the executor of your estate.

Prefer another way to give?

We welcome all gifts whether monthly, annual, or one-time. When you are ready to explore the benefits of planned giving, we are here to make the process easy for you.