A legacy gift to FIRE is the perfect way to secure the future of free speech — and to ensure that your grandchildren, their children, and generations to come are free to speak their minds.
Evolving threats to free speech principles have made it clear that there will always be a need for FIRE.
We need long-lasting support to defend and sustain individual rights. The dedicated members of FIRE’s Eternal Flame Society provide that vital support by including FIRE in their will and estate planning. Eternal Flames help ensure that FIRE has the resources needed to carry out our important work for many years to come.
No matter the size of your estate or the number of beneficiaries you include, you can make a valuable contribution to the future of free speech through a legacy gift to FIRE. Will or estate gifts cost you nothing during your lifetime and may even offer attractive tax advantages.
"I have confidence that FIRE will continue to punch above its weight and that my legacy gift will make a meaningful contribution to defending free speech for generations to come." — Nadine Strossen
As a FIRE senior fellow and former president of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008, Nadine Strossen is a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. If there's anyone who knows what it takes to defend our civil liberties, it's her.
“FIRE is part of my legacy plan because freedom of speech is part of the legacy that the Founders bequeathed to all of us as Americans. But it’s a legacy that’s constantly under threat. I don’t agree with every challenge that FIRE launches, but that’s okay, because FIRE is the best at what it does, and because it has no agenda except one: protecting the liberty that is fundamental to all of the others."
Arthur Hellman is a nationally recognized scholar of the federal courts and the First Amendment. In his career, Hellman helped foster a better understanding of the First Amendment and free speech more generally. At the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Hellman taught First Amendment law for more than 25 years.
“FIRE universally protects free expression by fighting censorship from both the left and the right. We must always defend the rights of our opponents to present their arguments. FIRE enables us to be allies with people with whom we may disagree on a number of other issues, because we all agree on protecting free expression.”
“I grew up in Berkeley and remember the Free Speech Movement of 1964. Later, I worked for 17 years in the chancellor’s office at UCLA. Working there taught me the importance of an organization like FIRE standing up for free speech in an environment that was already making it difficult to speak out for unpopular ideas. FIRE’s role has only grown in importance as universities have turned away from intellectual rigor and open discussion.”
Including FIRE in your will is the easiest and most popular type of legacy gift. All you need to do is fill in and share the sentence below with your attorney or estate planner.
You can also name FIRE as a beneficiary of accounts such as life insurance policies or retirement accounts. To do this, simply alert your policy or account custodian of your plans to change or add FIRE.
A charitable IRA rollover, or qualified charitable distribution (QCD), is a provision allowing donors who are age 70½ or older, to exclude from taxable income—and count towards their required minimum distribution—transfers of IRA assets that are made directly to public charities.
If you have any questions, or just want to speak with someone about legacy gift options, please do not hesitate to contact us. Also, please let us know if you make a legacy gift to FIRE! We would love to honor you as an Eternal Flame and extend member benefits to you. You can use this notification form or contact Ashley Adams at 215-717-3473 or ashley@thefire.org.