Johnny Appleseed: Planned Giving Pioneer

Gift planning officers sometimes use the term “deferred giving” to describe charitable gifts that donors arrange today, with charity’s benefit postponed until some future year. Such gifts include charitable trusts, from which donors keep income for life, and gifts of homes or farms in which donors keep the right to lifetime use and possession.

One of the first “deferred givers” may have been a 19th century pioneer named John Chapman. Chapman was born in Massachusetts just before the American Revolution. In 1800 he lashed two canoes together and set out down the Ohio River with a cargo of apple seeds from western Pennsylvania. For the next 40 years, Chapman roamed Ohio, Indiana and Illinois planting apple seeds and saplings, becoming known in legend as “Johnny Appleseed.”

Chapman’s motivation was to help people – the future settlers of the Ohio River Valley – even though his gifts might not unfold for decades. The apple trees he planted became a boon to pioneers moving westward, and while Chapman seldom knew the people he benefited, they knew about him and celebrated his name in song and story.

Chapman’s good works did encompass some personal rewards. He might charge settlers six cents for a sapling, or accept some old clothes or a promissory note (never collected). But mostly he gave his labors away and any personal benefits came in the context of a much greater good for humankind.

You can emulate John Chapman and consider a gift this year that will provide you with a good lifetime income and significant benefit for future generations. You’ll receive one other benefit – something “Johnny Appleseed” never needed: an income tax charitable deduction! Call our office for details.

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