Planned Gifts

There are a number of ways to plan your gift to the Metropolitan Opera. Many of these could provide you or your estate with significant tax benefits and help meet other financial planning needs, while providing a very generous ultimate gift to the Met.

Any planned gift entitles you to join the Encore Society, a very special group of friends who have included the Metropolitan Opera in their estate plans.

Among the most popular planned gifts:

• Will bequests
• Life income gifts — gifts from which you (or another) can receive lifetime income
• Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and other retirement savings plan gifts
• Charitable lead trusts
• Gifts of appreciated property
• Real estate gifts
• Life insurance gifts

For more information or confidential help in planning your gift to support the future of the Metropolitan Opera, please complete this form or contact our Planned Giving office directly. Our experienced tax and estate planning staff can provide you with individual assistance and gift planning information, without obligation.

Endowed Gifts

Annual giving alone cannot provide sufficient resources for the Metropolitan Opera to meet the formidable challenges facing our company.

The Metropolitan Opera’s endowment was created in connection with the company’s 1883–93 Centennial Celebration and significantly increased during the 1998–2002 Campaign for the Endowment Fund. Since then, income from the endowment has enabled the Met to strengthen the company artistically and to build audiences for opera.

Increased endowment income is essential if the Metropolitan Opera is to:

• Strengthen the artistry of the company and compete successfully for the world’s greatest singers, conductors, designers and directors.
• Invest in the finest young talent through the company’s young artist programs.
• Set the standard for public service through radio broadcasts, telecasts, free parks concerts, education programs—and media made possible by the new technology of the twenty-first century.
• Maintain the Metropolitan Opera House, one of the world’s greatest performing arts theaters.
• Establish achievable annual fundraising goals.
• Set ticket prices competitive with other performing arts organizations to encourage growth in the Metropolitan Opera’s audiences.
• Present the world’s greatest performing arts companies at the Metropolitan Opera House when the company is not in residence.
• Have the protection of a reliable source of income—a ”safety net”—so that the company can continue to flourish despite fluctuations in the economic climate and in the face of unforeseen but inevitable events.

If you are in position to do so, please consider making a current gift to the endowment in addition to your annual support.

Or, you can make a future gift to the Met endowment by including it in your financial and estate planning.

There are many endowment donor recognition and naming opportunities that we would be glad to discuss with you.