Feature

Giving, because children are in need

When it comes to financial planning, Iowan couple includes world’s children in decisions

By Curt Seeden

It was a humbling moment—it was a Kiwanis moment—for Mary Langdon.

“I was a Key Club advisor,” Mary recalls, “and I was taking three Key Clubbers to their midyear convention. This one little gal lived in a single-wide trailer in a bad part of town. She was Hispanic and didn’t speak any English.”

Mary remembers peeking inside the door of the girl’s home to find a king-sized bed in the living room occupied by six siblings.

“So here’s this little girl in Key Club helping other kids, when, by golly, we should be helping her,” Mary says.

To help the most kids possible, Mary and Dick Langdon choose to donate appreciated stock to the Kiwanis International Foundation.

“We want to do as many things as we can to help children, which is the backbone of Kiwanis,” says Dick. The couple’s focus is on giving unrestricted gifts to the foundation.

“The unrestricted gift gives the people who receive the money the option of doing the most good with it,” Dick says. “For us to restrict a gift to one particular group would tie the hands of those dispersing the money from actually giving the money to where it would do the most good.”

Adds Mary: “Suppose we just wanted money to go to IDD (iodine deficiency disorders), and then Hurricane Katrina hits. Katrina was an unforeseen peril that needed to be addressed.”

The Langdons are motivated by their love of children. They have donated generous gifts through two foundations that share their interest. Mary is president of the Nebraska-Iowa Kiwanis District Foundation and Dick is president of the Scottish Rite Foundation in Iowa.

“We have many of the same kinds of goals,” Dick says. “We just both happen to be foundation presidents of organizations that want to help children and do charitable work.”

Mary became involved in Kiwanis in 1990 when her best friend, Sharon Kimberlin, invited her to the Highland Park, Des Moines Kiwanis club meeting. By 1994, Mary had become the  club’s first female president, and in 1997 she became her division’s first female lieutenant governor. She was lieutenant governor a second time in 2002, the same year she became president of the Nebraska-Iowa Kiwanis Foundation.

Dick had been involved with the Scottish Rite for several years before he married Mary. With Mary in Kiwanis and the missions of both organizations so similar, Dick also joined Kiwanis, and the couple switched their membership to the West Des Moines club.

“We both love children,” Dick says. “I have one daughter who has a mental disability, and I’ve been of assistance to her and our other children.”

The Langdons strongly advocate the importance of considering tax benefits when giving. Dick explains why they often choose to give appreciated stock.

“If you bought stock for US$10,000 and now it’s worth $100,000, and you give that $100,000 stock to charity, (in the United States) you get a tax deduction of $100,000 while the charity gets the full benefit of your donation,” Dick explains.

“But if you were to sell your stock and try to give the money away, because of the (capital gains) taxes involved, you won’t maximize the tax benefits.”

The Langdons also are firm believers in long-term giving and leaving legacies through estate planning. “We are very fortunate that we’re able to give,” Mary says. “You get back more than you give, and I’ve always been a proponent of that. It’s the way we live.”