Heritage Program
Our Heritage Program provides ways to support our mission to save Colorado cats as well as a way to ensure your cat is cared for if he or she outlives you. If you do not find an option that suits your wishes or needs, please contact us to see if a customized option might be developed for you.
Heritage Safekeepers
Nobody wants to think about the unthinkable: something happens to us, and our cat won’t be taken care of. As responsible cat parents, we owe it to our cats to think ahead and make arrangements for our cats’ care after we’re gone. The Heritage Safekeepers option allows HCH to serve as a temporary caregiver for your cats in the event of your death. If you adopted your cats from HCH, they may be returned to us at any time, as is our policy with all HCH adoptions.
If you did not adopt your cats from HCH, they may still be surrendered to us. In this case, HCH would be most appreciative of a gift to support the work of our shelter. Such a gift can be made as part of your estate plan and an appropriate amount can be determined in consultation with the HCH staff.
In either case, a Safekeepers Designation Form must be completed to participate in this option. This detailed form lets us learn all about your kitty.
Your cats will be brought to our shelter by one of our compassionate staff members or volunteers. They will then be given a physical exam. Depending on the situation, they will be placed in one of our loving foster homes or kept at the shelter for better exposure to adopting families.
Cats taken in through our Safekeepers option will be made available for adoption through our regular adoption program with the requirement that if the cats do not adapt to their new surroundings, they will be returned only to HCH. To participate in this option, a Safekeepers Designation Form must be on file for each cat.
Rest assured that your cats will receive the best care and affection from our experienced staff and volunteers during their stay.
The Heritage Program provides ways to support our mission as well as a way to ensure your cat is cared for if he or she outlives you. If you do not find an option in our Heritage Program which suits your wishes or needs, please contact us at 719-362-4600 to see if a customized option might be developed for you. Our tax ID# is 45-1633134.
Heritage Gifts
Contributions to help sustain the Happy Cats Haven mission.
Heritage Estate Bequests
You may contribute to the mission of Happy Cats Haven by making a bequest as part of your estate planning. Your estate bequest can be in the form of a specified cash amount or as a percentage of your estate.
To make an estate bequest, you will need to fill out an Estate Bequest Designation and submit to HCH along with a copy of your estate plan showing HCH as a recipient of an estate bequest.
We recommend that you consult with your estate planner in regard to including HCH in your estate plan.
Heritage Guardian Angels
Our Happy Cats are looking for their Guardian Angels! For the cost of a monthly latte, you can make sure a litter of kittens gets food for a month, a cat or kitten gets fixed, a senior gets a dental or a colony stays warm. Your recurring gift helps us pay for these everyday expenses.
Heritage Tax-Free Gifts
If you are 70-1/2 or older you may use the IRA charitable rollover to make a tax-free gift to HCH. According to the law, you may transfer up to $100,000 directly to a qualified charitable organization without paying income tax on the distribution.
If you have not taken your required minimum distribution (RMD) for the year, an IRA charitable gift rollover may also satisfy all or part of that requirement.
You may specify a particular usage of your bequest to HCH or allow HCH to best utilize the funds upon receipt. Such will put to use immediately by HCH to make a difference in the lives of our cats.
Happy Cats Haven urges you to consult with your attorney, financial or tax advisor regarding an IRA charitable contribution rollover or RMD. The information provided here does not constitute legal or financial advice.
Heritage Life Insurance Gifts
Happy Cats Haven will be grateful to accept gifts of life insurance either as the beneficiary of a policy or as the sole owner and sole beneficiary.
You can name HCH as a primary life insurance beneficiary or as a contingent beneficiary should your other beneficiaries not survive you. After your lifetime, the benefits from your policy go to HCH, free of federal estate tax.
Your gift will help HCH continue its mission. To make this gift, simply contact your insurance carrier and request a beneficiary form.
Another option is to donate your paid-up life insurance policy to HCH. If the policy has cash value, HCH would have the option of either holding the policy until the maturity date or surrendering the policy to receive the policy’s current cash value.