Why Donate Mineral and Royalty Interests?
Eliminate administration hassles - local property tax, federal and sometimes state income taxes, verifying payments are correct, and other administrative burdens.
Protect a family legacy - If you inherited minerals, you may feel conflicted about owning them, but do not want to sell them a corporation, either. Donating alleviates these concerns, and allows the family legacy to continue on, protected.
Tax Benefits - Donations of mineral rights can qualify for an IRS charitable tax donation.
Help a Cause - Income producing minerals are used to fund our core Programs. Even minerals that are not producing can give us access to land and well sites that we can inspect for contamination or other environmental hazards.
Why Donate to ERGF?
An Active Steward. Non-profit organizations are sometimes gifted mineral interests. However, few of these organizations are active stewards of their interests. They use whatever cash is generated to fund their unrelated programs or pay salaries. ERGF feels that, however noble their programs may be, these organizations are missing a huge opportunity and prioritizing income over the environmental impact of the minerals.
Minerals Relate to our Vision. The backbone of ERGF is the effective stewardship of mineral and royalty interests. By owning mineral interests, we are better able to ensure that the minerals are produced responsibly, with adequate environmental protections. Because our ownership of minerals has a direct correlation to our Vision, we can assure you that your donation remains a legacy and will be responsibly managed.
We Don’t Sell. To the surprise of many donors (often too late), some non-profits will even sell donated minerals. They may even be up-front about it; however, we believe selling the gift is an affront to the Donor.
Access and Bargaining. Your gift of minerals, even non-producing minerals, helps us execute our Programs. The mineral rights may give us access to lands we could not otherwise monitor. The mineral rights may give us the power to negotiate lease terms that include adequate environmental protections.
In short, we are one of the only non-profit organizations that utilize mineral rights in a manner consistent with our Vision - natural resource development with a greater regard to water resources, plant and animal life, clean air, and clean skies.
How the Process Works
Step 1: Determine if you want to report the donation on your taxes for a charitable donation. If not, skip to Step 2. If so, an independent appraisal is required per IRS rules. We cannot provide or pay for the appraisal, but can point you in the direction of groups that do this type of work.
Step 2: A Deed will be prepared for you, conveying the mineral rights to ERGF. The Deed must be signed in front of a Notary.
Step 3: Mail the original Deed to us, and we will send it on to the County to be recorded in their public records. We typically pay for the cost of preparing and recording the Deed, but any assistance in offsetting the cost is appreciated. Once recorded, the donation is complete! A copy of the recorded Deed will be sent to you for your records.
Additional Information
Your gift of mineral rights may be tax deductible, as allowed by law. However, you should discuss it with a tax professional as some situations are unique.
We accept the following types of interests, and all play an important part in our organization:
Mineral and/or Royalty Interests
Overriding Royalty Interest
Interests in the Surface
Term Interests (Any of the above interests, but limited in duration to a certain term of years).
We cannot accept leasehold interests or working interests. These interests typically bear the cost of developing the minerals, and also bear the cost of any other financial or environmental liability.