Estate planning for charitable giving is one of the most meaningful ways to extend your values beyond your lifetime — and including Sunny Glen Children’s Home in San Benito in your estate plan doesn’t require a large fortune or a complicated legal process. It requires something simpler: the belief that a child’s future is worth protecting, even after you’re gone. A gift arranged today, fulfilled later, can fund care, counseling, and stability for children who need it most.
Some decisions take minutes to make and a lifetime to honor. This is one of them.
For 90 years, Sunny Glen has walked alongside more than 25,000 children who needed someone to show up and stay. A planned gift is one of the most meaningful ways to make sure that work continues — not just today, but for generations of children yet to come.
God calls us to love the vulnerable as He loves us. Faithfully. Without condition. A planned gift is one way to answer that call, long after we’re gone.
What Is Planned Giving, and Why Does It Count?
A planned gift is sometimes called a legacy gift, and the name fits. It reflects the story your life tells after you’re no longer here — the values you held, the people you loved, and the causes you believed were worth protecting.
Planned giving usually involves a gift arranged now that takes effect later, through your will, trust, or beneficiary designation. It doesn’t affect your finances today. What it does is extend your generosity forward into years and lives you may never see firsthand.
For the children at Sunny Glen, that kind of long-term commitment changes everything. These are children who’ve often known instability, loss, and fear. What they need is a place that’s steady, safe, and grounded in something bigger than circumstances. A planned gift says: I believe these children deserve a future. I believe their lives are worth protecting. And I want to be part of that, even after I’m gone.
Gifts in a Will or Trust: The Most Common Place to Start
Most donors begin here. A bequest in your will or trust is simple, flexible, and costs you nothing during your lifetime. In many cases, it takes just one sentence naming Sunny Glen Children’s Home as a beneficiary of a portion of your estate.
You can give a specific dollar amount, a percentage of your estate, or what remains after other gifts have been made. Any size gift is welcome. A modest bequest from a modest estate can fund a child’s counseling, cover a month of residential care, or help stock the pantry that feeds kids every day.
Beneficiary Designations: One Form, Lasting Impact
Naming Sunny Glen Children’s Home as a beneficiary on your retirement accounts, life insurance policy, or investment accounts is often as straightforward as submitting a form through your financial institution. It’s worth speaking with your estate planning attorney or financial advisor to understand how these designations work alongside your overall plan and what makes the most sense for your situation.
What matters is this: a beneficiary designation is a clear, deliberate statement of your priorities. It reflects who and what you believe is worth protecting.
Tax-Free Charitable Gifts: A Smart Option If You’re 70½ or Older
If you’re 70½ or older, you may be able to make a tax-free gift to Sunny Glen through a Qualified Charitable Distribution, or QCD. The funds transfer directly from your retirement account, and you won’t owe income taxes on the gifted amount. It’s worth speaking with your financial advisor to find out whether this option fits your situation.
For donors already taking required minimum distributions, this is one of the most tax-efficient ways to give. Your gift goes further because more of it reaches the children who need it.
Real Estate and Other Gift Options
Your generosity doesn’t have to come in the form of cash. Real estate — a home, a farm, a piece of land — can be given directly, through a retained life estate that lets you continue living in your home during your lifetime, or as a bequest in your will.
Other options include mineral rights, charitable remainder trusts, and gifts of securities. Every donor’s situation is different. If you have an idea you’d like to explore, contact the team at Sunny Glen. We’re glad to talk it through.
Why Sunny Glen? Because These Children Deserve a Future
Sunny Glen has been shaped by faith in God’s love for every child since its founding in 1936. The mission has never wavered: to heal trauma and give children new hope through that love. It shows up in residential care, in weekly Bible studies, in counseling rooms, and in the daily rhythms that help a child feel — maybe for the first time — that they are safe.
Our ministries and services include residential programs, the Poenisch Counseling Center, the Allen House Supported Independent Living program, and refugee services. Children come to us from hard places. They leave with more than they arrived with — more stability, more tools, more belief in themselves.
When you include Sunny Glen in your estate plan, you’re choosing to be part of God’s work in the lives of children who need it most.
How Your Estate Planning for Charitable Giving Shapes More Than a Gift
Planned gifts let Sunny Glen plan ahead with confidence — investing in programs, improving facilities, and sustaining the day-to-day care that makes a real difference in children’s lives, not just this year but decade after decade.
Donors who give this way aren’t simply writing a check. They’re becoming part of something that has lasted nearly a century and, God willing, will last a century more. Their impact lives in the child who learned to trust again, in the teenager who aged out of care with real skills and real hope, in the family that held together because someone cared enough to help.
If you’d like to learn more about the full scope of who we are and what drives this work, we’d love to share that story with you.
What the Children at Sunny Glen Experience Every Day
Walk through the campus in San Benito and you’ll see children doing what children are meant to do — learning, playing, growing. You’ll see staff who chose this work because they believe in it. You’ll see a place built on the conviction that every child, no matter where they’ve been, deserves a chance at a whole life.
More than 25,000 children have passed through Sunny Glen’s doors since 1936. Each one came with a story. Each one left changed. Your planned gift makes that possible.
What’s the difference between a planned gift and a regular donation?
When you give from your current income or savings, that gift makes an impact right away. A planned gift works differently. You arrange it now, but it’s fulfilled later — through your will, trust, or beneficiary designation. Because it doesn’t come out of your everyday finances, planned gifts tend to be larger. They’re one of the most meaningful ways to leave something lasting behind. You can also make a donation today if you want your generosity to reach children right now.
Do I need a large estate to make a planned gift?
Not at all. A small percentage of a retirement account or a modest bequest in your will can shape the lives of children at Sunny Glen for years to come. What matters isn’t the size of the gift. It’s the love behind it — and the difference it makes over time. God calls each of us to give as we’re able, and every gift, large or small, carries real meaning.
How old do I have to be to make a tax-free charitable gift?
You must be 70½ or older to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution. This allows you to direct funds straight to Sunny Glen without owing income taxes on the distribution. Talk with your financial advisor to see whether it fits your situation. It’s a simple, tax-wise way to put your savings to work for children who need it most.
Who should I contact to talk through my options?
Just reach out to us. There’s no commitment required — only a conversation. We’ll listen, answer your questions, and connect you with advisors who specialize in charitable estate planning if you’d like. We’re here whenever you’re ready.
Your Legacy Begins with a Decision
Estate planning for charitable giving starts with a simple choice: to let your life mean something beyond your own years. The children at Sunny Glen don’t need perfect donors. They need faithful ones — people who believe, as we do, that God’s love for every child is worth protecting and passing on.
Get involved. Make a donation. Or take the next step toward a planned gift that will outlast us all.