Maybe you bought it 40 years ago. And it is a great place. If only it wasn't a 3-hour drive to get there. And now that the kids have their own vacation places and the grand kids have gone off to college, they just don't get back to use it much. You worry about it, and you do get out there occasionally to oversee maintenance work. It's not much fun to travel there for that purpose, but the place has actually appreciated in value quite a bit over the years, there's no mortgage on it, and you want to keep up the maintenance, for a better sale eventually.

In the meantime, life keeps happening in your everyday world, and you and your spouse have deepened several long-term charitable interests in your community. One of your favorite groups is starting a capital campaign to expand its facilities so they can do more. The campaign chairwoman is asking you to consider a gift of $500,000 to this campaign, and you'd really like to make the gift. You want them to be able to do more.

You have plenty to fund your old age, and the kids and grand kids will be well-remembered in your estate, but it's still hard to part with that big of a chunk of your investment portfolio.

You and your spouse are talking it over, and consulting with your financial advisers. Maybe you could give half now and half through your estate? But your estate will probably (we hope!) distribute many years from now, and the construction starts a lot sooner than that.

Did you know that appreciated real estate property can make a great charitable gift?

The most important advantage of giving appreciated real estate, especially if it has appreciated over a long period of time, is being positioned to deduct the current market value of the property, not just what you paid for it 40 years ago, and to avoid capital gains taxes on the appreciation. You might be able to make a much larger gift than you hoped.

Your estate planning attorney and your tax accountant can be most helpful in exploring this possibility, forming a brief project team with you and representatives of the charity.

Pay attention to some important caveats:

You will be responsible for getting a valuation ("qualified appraisal") of the property
You will be responsible for appropriate assessment of environmental issues and clean-up, if issues are found
To protect your charitable deduction, you cannot make any agreements with a potential buyer of the property that it will be sold to them.

There are more considerations* but on the whole, utilizing real estate assets to make a charitable gift can be a very rewarding experience.

If you can, before transferring the vacation home property, plan a vacation there with some of the kids and grand kids. Reminisce with them about good times together, and then tell them what the value of the property will mean for the work of the charity, and how much it means to you that the work can be done.

Making a gift like this can be a great way to communicate and reinforce your values to future generations, both in your own family and the greater community.

* Disclaimer: This article is not meant to constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. The author is not an attorney or CPA. You should consult with your own advisors before making a gift of real estate or any other asset.