To make a charitable bequest in a will, you add a clause that tells your executor to transfer a specific dollar amount, a named asset, or a percentage of what’s left of your estate to a qualifying nonprofit after your death. The gift comes off your taxable estate in full under federal law, with no cap on the deduction.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2055 – Transfers for Public, Charitable, and Religious Uses The wording, the charity’s exact legal identity, and a few backup provisions decide whether the gift actually reaches the cause you intended.
Four Ways to Structure the Gift
How you frame the bequest changes how much the charity ultimately receives and how the gift behaves when the estate is settled.
- A specific bequest gives a particular asset or a fixed dollar amount. “I leave my 500 shares of XYZ stock to [charity]” or “I leave $50,000 to [charity]” both qualify. The charity gets exactly what you named, but the real value can drift with markets or inflation between the date you sign the will and the date you die.
- A general bequest is a set dollar amount paid from the estate’s general pool of assets rather than tied to a particular piece of property. Your executor decides which assets to liquidate to satisfy it.
- A residuary bequest gives a percentage, or all, of whatever remains after debts, taxes, expenses, and other bequests are paid. This is often the most practical charitable structure because the gift scales with the final value of the estate. If the estate grows, the charity benefits; if it shrinks, the charity absorbs a proportional share of the loss rather than crowding out gifts to family.
- A contingent bequest takes effect only if a primary beneficiary cannot inherit. You might leave everything to your spouse, for example, and name a charity as the contingent beneficiary if your spouse dies before you.
You can combine them. Leaving a fixed dollar amount to one charity and a residuary share to another is common.
Naming the Charity Correctly
The single most important detail is the charity’s correct legal name. Many organizations operate under names slightly different from their legal name, and similarly named charities exist across the country. Include the full legal name, the city and state, and the Employer Identification Number (EIN). All three together practically eliminate the risk of the gift going to the wrong organization or being tied up while a court works out which one you meant.
Confirm that the organization qualifies for the estate tax charitable deduction before you finalize anything. Qualifying recipients under federal law include organizations operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, along with government entities and certain veterans’ organizations.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2055 – Transfers for Public, Charitable, and Religious Uses The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool lets you look up any charity by name or EIN and verify its status in a few minutes.2Internal Revenue Service. Tax Exempt Organization Search
Two Drafting Decisions to Make Before You See a Lawyer
Restricted or Unrestricted
An unrestricted gift lets the charity direct the money wherever the need is greatest. A restricted gift earmarks the funds for a specific purpose, such as a scholarship program or a building fund. Restrictions sound appealing because they give you control, but they create risk. If the program you designated is discontinued twenty years after your death, the charity may have to go to court under a legal principle called cy pres to redirect the funds to a closely related purpose. That process costs time and legal fees.
If you want a restriction, include a fallback clause authorizing the charity’s board to redirect the funds to a closely related purpose if the original restriction becomes impracticable. That keeps the gift out of court.
An Alternate Charity
Organizations dissolve, merge, or change their missions. Your will should name a backup charity that receives the gift if your first choice no longer exists or no longer qualifies as a tax-exempt organization when you die. Without an alternate, the bequest typically drops into the residuary estate and goes to whoever inherits that portion, which may not be a charitable recipient at all.
How the Estate Tax Deduction Works
Federal law allows an unlimited deduction for charitable bequests when calculating your taxable estate.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2055 – Transfers for Public, Charitable, and Religious Uses Every dollar that goes to a qualified charity comes off the top of your gross estate before estate tax is calculated. There is no percentage ceiling.
For 2026, the federal estate tax basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person.3Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax Estates below that threshold owe no federal estate tax regardless of charitable giving. For larger estates, charitable bequests reduce the taxable amount dollar-for-dollar. A married couple with a $35 million combined estate who leaves $5 million to charity removes that $5 million from the estate tax calculation entirely.
The executor claims the deduction by filing IRS Form 706 and completing Schedule O, which reports the charitable transfers.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 706 One detail that catches people out: if estate taxes or other debts are paid out of the charitable bequest itself, the deduction is reduced by the amount of those taxes. Your will should specify that taxes are paid from other estate funds. That protects the full value of the gift and the full deduction.
What Your Will Cannot Reach
A will only controls assets that pass through probate. Retirement accounts and life insurance policies transfer directly to named beneficiaries and never touch the will. If you want a charity to receive part of your wealth, deciding which assets to give matters as much as how much.
Retirement Accounts
Naming a charity as beneficiary of an IRA or 401(k) on the plan administrator’s form is one of the most tax-efficient ways to give. When a person inherits a retirement account, they owe income tax on every distribution. A charity, because it is tax-exempt, pays nothing, and the full balance goes to the cause. The money also transfers outside probate, which means faster distribution and lower administrative costs.
If you plan to leave money to both family and charity, consider directing the retirement accounts to charity and leaving other assets, such as a home or brokerage account, to family. Your family gets a stepped-up cost basis on those assets and avoids the income tax hit that would come with inheriting a traditional IRA.
Life Insurance
You can name a charity as beneficiary of a life insurance policy by updating the beneficiary form with your insurance company. The death benefit passes directly to the charity, and your estate receives a charitable deduction for the amount distributed. This works well for people who want to make a significant charitable gift without reducing the assets available to family during their lifetime.
Adding a Bequest to a Will You Already Have
You do not need to write an entirely new will to add a charitable gift. A codicil, a short legal amendment to your existing will, can add, remove, or modify a bequest. The codicil must reference your original will by date, state the change, confirm that all other provisions remain in effect, and be signed and witnessed with the same formalities your state requires for a will.
Codicils work best for a single, straightforward addition. If you are making several changes or the estate plan has become complicated, a new will is usually cleaner. Either way, keep the original will and any codicils together somewhere your executor can find them.
What Can Shrink the Gift After You Die
If the estate does not have enough money to pay all debts and fulfill every bequest, a process called abatement kicks in. The court reduces gifts in a set order to cover what the estate owes. The standard priority in most states starts by cutting property not disposed of in the will, then reduces residuary bequests, then general bequests, and finally specific bequests. A residuary charitable gift is therefore among the first to shrink when money runs short; a specific bequest of a named asset is the most protected.
That ordering has real planning consequences. If protecting the charitable gift is a priority, a specific bequest of a set dollar amount or a named asset gives the charity more security than a residuary share. You can also include language that overrides the default abatement order, but then other beneficiaries absorb the shortfall instead.
One more wrinkle: in most states a surviving spouse has a legal right to claim a minimum share of the estate regardless of what the will says. This elective share can reduce or eliminate charitable bequests if the surviving spouse exercises it. If you are married and planning a large charitable gift, coordinate with your spouse and your attorney so the bequest is structured with that protection in mind.