A Charitable Lead Trust (CLT) is a giving tool that allows you to transfer assets into the trust, pay income to charity for a fixed number of years, and then (upon your death or at then end of the trust period) pay the remaining balance in the trust to your family or another (non-charitable) beneficiary. 

Your CFT Giving Fund can be named as the trust’s charitable beneficiary – thus, giving you the flexibility of changing charitable recipients as often as you need to. 

When it comes to determining how much income from your trust goes to your CFT Giving Fund, you have two choices:

• You can lock in the amount of annual payments from the trust to your Fund.  This is called a "charitable lead annuity trust," and it's the most common form of charitable lead trust.  The amount that you lock in can be based on dollars or a fixed percentage of the fair market value of the trust when you open it.
   
• You may elect to have the amount of annual payments vary each year by creating a "charitable lead unitrust."  In this case, income paid by the trust to your Fund is a fixed percentage of the principal of the trust – but that principal is re-valued each year based on market conditions.

Either way, you establish the trust and its terms, direct payments to your CFT Giving Fund each year (from which you recommend grants), and then leave the remaining trust balance to your heirs after your trust period is up.

Remember: You will need the help of your financial advisor and/or independent legal counsel to open a trust.