If you want to make a substantial gift to a charity, it may make sense to explore using a special kind of trust, called a charitable trust. It lets you donate generously to charity and gives you and your heirs a big tax break. On the other hand, if you just want to leave property to family or friends and make a few minor charitable gifts, then a charitable trust probably isn't worth the bother. In any case, you need to do some serious thinking before setting up a charitable trust.
Charitable trusts are irrevocable.
Once you create one and it becomes operational, you cannot change your mind and regain legal control of the trust property. How It Works The most common type of charitable trust is called a charitable remainder trust. Here's how it usually works. First, you set up a trust and transfer to it the property you want to donate to a charity. The charity must be approved by the IRS, which usually means it has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code.