The Annual Gift Forever program is a way for loyal Library donors to include a gift to a Kansas City Public Library endowment in their will, which becomes a gift that goes on forever.

Endowing your annual gift ensures that your legacy of support lives on to play a lasting part in fulfilling the Library’s mission, while providing a steady, reliable source of income so the Library can meet the most immediate needs of our community.

How it Works

You leave a charitable bequest of cash, securities, or other assets to one of the Library's endowed funds, or you create your own named endowed fund with a gift of at least $50,000.

An endowment is a permanent fund that is specifically set aside and invested to earn revenue. The original value of the endowment, or “corpus,” is where your Annual Gift Forever bequest will be added.

The corpus will grow and can be added to with additional gifts, but it is never drawn from. Instead, the investment earnings generated from endowed funds are used to support the Library’s work.

The chart below lays out the approximate amount that your bequest to an endowed fund would produce. This estimate is based on a 4% endowment spending level, with a typical market return of 6%. Therefore, your bequest gift would need to be about 25 times your annual gift amount to produce it forever.

To participate in the Annual Gift Forever program, all we need from you is confirmation that you’ve included one of the Library’s endowed funds in your estate plans. If you are willing to share an estimate of the amount, it can help us plan for the future, but it is not required. We can provide you with bequest language and will keep a copy of your bequest on file to make sure your wishes are honored.

We invite you to get in touch if you’d like to learn more about making your support for the Library last forever. Contact us at philanthropy@kclibrary.org or call 816.701.3518.