Choosing how your life income gift will be used As a life income gift donor, there are various options for your consideration. Restricted gifts support ongoing university needs such as faculty salaries, undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and libraries. They can also be used to build and maintain facilities or to underwrite research. Unrestricted gifts are, in a sense, most valuable, as they allow the university to cope flexibly and imaginatively with future needs and organizational changes. Endowed funds provide income every year in perpetuity to carry out the designated purpose of the gift.
Expendable funds spend both the principal and the income on the designated purpose of the gift.
Named funds remain visible in the Stanford community because of the people and activities they support. As a result, they also encourage others to give. There are several principal types of life income gifts, giving you a range of choice in your investment and estate planning. One of them may be ideally suited to your particular circumstances. These gifts are described briefly below.