The Great Blue Heron Society honors individuals who have chosen to support the future of Darien Library through a planned gift.

Darien Library has long been a place where ideas spark, friendships form, and curiosity flourishes. By including the Library in your long-term planning, you help ensure that our mission continues for generations to come.

Your planned gift ensures that children, students, families, and lifelong learners will always find a place of welcome, curiosity, and connection at Darien Library.

If you have already included Darien Library in your estate plans, please let us know so we may thank you and recognize you.

Download the Brochure

Your gift today will inspire generations tomorrow.

Create a Legacy at Darien Library

For more than a century, Darien Library has been at the heart of our community’s story. A planned gift is one of the most meaningful ways to ensure this vital community resource remains vibrant, innovative, and accessible for all. 

• Sustain beloved programs and services.
• Support emerging technologies and collections.
• Enrich learning opportunities for children, teens, and adults.
• Maintain our building as a welcoming, inspiring place for generations.

• Recognition in donor listings.
• Invitations to special events.
• The satisfaction of knowing your legacy is shaping future generations.

Ways to Create Your Legacy

How to Get Started

Name the Library in Your Will or Living Trust

You can arrange a bequest in your will or living trust, ensuring that the Library provides our community of users with free and open access to the best books, audiobooks, DVDs, research databases, technology, and public programming.

There are different types of bequests:
 

Specific Bequest

A specific bequest is a gift of a particular dollar amount or property. For example: “I bequeath [dollar amount or description of personal property] to Darien Library.”
 

Residuary Bequest

A residuary bequest is a gift of all or part of the property remaining in your estate after debts, expenses, and specific bequests have been paid. You control what percentage of your estate is given to an individual or charity. This method automatically adjusts the size of your bequest according to the value of your estate. In the event of unexpected changes in the size of your estate value, you can have peace of mind that your intentions will be fulfilled without the estate running out of assets to distribute. For example: “I bequeath [___%] of the rest, residue, and remainder of my property, both real and personal, to Darien Library.”
 

Contingent Bequest

A contingent bequest is a gift that takes effect only if the primary beneficiary or beneficiaries of the bequest should predecease you. For example: “If neither my spouse nor any descendant of mine survives me, then I give, bequeath, and devise all the rest, residue, and remainder of [property or account] to Darien Library.”
 

Donor-Advised Funds and Legacy Giving

A donor-advised fund is a dedicated account for charitable giving that can be established under a name chosen by the donor, similar to a foundation. When you make an irrevocable gift to a donor advised fund, you are able to create a philanthropic legacy that offers grant-making flexibility, anonymity, and advantageous tax deductions. You can incorporate your donor-advised fund into estate planning by making a bequest in your will.
 

Information for the Attorney Drafting your Bequest

The full legal name of the Library is: Darien Library. The Library’s legal address is 1441 Post Road, Darien, CT 06820; the Library’s Federal Tax Identification Number is 06-0647010.

Make a Gift by Beneficiary Designation

Making a gift to the Library by beneficiary designation from any or all of the following types of TOD (“Transfer on Death”) accounts is a simple and tax-efficient way to fund your legacy and avoid the time and expenses that result from having the assets subject to the probate process.

TOD Gifts may take the following forms:

Completing the Designation

To name the Library as beneficiary of any of the abovementioned gift types, contact a representative of the institution that manages your account or policy, and request a Change of Beneficiary Form.

Unrestricted vs. Restricted Donations

An unrestricted donation

These funds that may be used by the Library where they are needed most. These donations support core Library services and collections, such as the purchase of books, audiobooks, digital materials, technology, staff development, and public programming.
 

Restricted donations

Thse fall into one of two categories: temporary or permanent. The type of restriction is specified in the “gift instrument,” a document stipulating how the donated funds may be used.

• Time-restricted donations
  The funds must be used for a particular purpose or they must support a specific program or campaign for a limited amount of time. For example, “I bequeath [dollar amount] to the Darien Library to be used for children’s programming over the next [number of months or years] or until the fund is exhausted.”

• Permanently restricted donations
  These funds never expire. The donor stipulates that the gift must be kept in perpetuity (forever), but the earnings may be used by the Library. Typically, this means that the gift is invested in the Library’s endowment fund. The interest earned on said funds are what the Library may spend each year or according to the endowment policies and/or stipulations of the gift instrument.