Ways to Give

The challenges affecting marine mammals in our community are staggering. Your gift supports programs and services that meet the immediate, critical needs to treat and rehabilitate marine mammals and return them to their ocean home. Unless otherwise indicated, your gift will be used in the area of greatest need. Other ways to give include:

Monthly or Quarterly Giving

For many donors, the chance to support Marine Mammal Care Center with recurring gifts – on a monthly or quarterly basis – is an attractive way to be sure Marine Mammal Care Center receives their generous support regularly throughout the year.  Whatever the amount, these regularly scheduled gift payments can be easily set up on our online giving form and, they are greatly appreciated!

Donate now

Support our work by donating items and supplies on our Wishlist.

When you buy on Amazon, you can choose the Marine Mammal Care Center as your designated charity and .5% of your order will be donated to MMCC.

Online shop with a portion of your proceeds supporting MMCC

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Looking to have a sustainable vacation that gives back to MMCC? As a proud partner with Kind Traveler, we invite our community to explore exclusive offers from Kind Traveler’s socially conscious collection of hotels and an opportunity to give back and support our mission. A veteran-and-women-owned public benefit corporation, Kind Traveler is the first Give + Get hotel booking platform that empowers travelers to make a positive impact in the communities they visit. 100% of donations go MMCC. #TravelKindly and give back to MMCC on your next vacation. Click here to book any Kind Hotel and in the final booking page, simply select Marine Mammal Care Center to designate us as your charity of choice.

Create your own fundraiser to support Marine Mammal Care Center through an in person or online event. Businesses, restaurants, families and individuals have planned and hosted events such as sports tournaments, lemonade stands, birthday parties, raffles, retail “give back” days and more. Contact us about hosting your own event! 

For local corporations, professional firms, and small businesses, a corporate sponsorship of Marine Mammal Care Center is a special way to express support of the special impact of Marine Mammal Care Center – not just in the lives of those who are part of the Marine Mammal Care Center community, but also the entire San Pedro community.  Corporate sponsorship of Marine Mammal Care Center is a great way to join us in ensuring that our doors are ever-open for marine mammals who need our care and attention in their lives.  It’s a great way to make a real difference.  Our Seal Day and Earth Day events fund critical operations and outreach efforts. For more information please email development@marinemammalcare.org.

Donate your vehicle to help support marine animal rehabilitation and education.

Gifts to MMCC offer a special way to honor or remember family members and friends for whom MMCC represents an important cause in their lives. Honor gifts can also be made to recognize a volunteer or caregiver for exceptional service. You can indicate a desire to commemorate a special occasion (such as a memorial, a birthday, a wedding) by using the online form or by including the appropriate information with a contribution mailed to Marine Mammal Care Center.

Your commitment to support Marine Mammal Care Center by a bequest or other gift in your financial or estate plans will help ensure the vitality of Marine Mammal Care Center for years to come.  A legacy gift offers a special way to make a lasting impact at Marine Mammal Care Center – and, is greatly appreciated.  Every donor who makes a legacy commitment will be recognized as Member of the Marine Mammal Care Center Legacy Society. For more information on these options, please email development@marinemammalcare.org.

There are a variety of other ways to support the mission and work of Marine Mammal Care Center.   Through creative gift planning, you can make a gift that offers both significant tax advantages and opportunities to create new income streams for life. These gift ideas offer a chance to make immediate gifts or long-term commitments that align with your personal or family aspirations and interests as you consider your overall financial and estate plans.  

Grants from private and corporate foundations support education opportunities, animal care and services for marine mammals and conservation. In addition, grant funding provides the means to implement new and innovative programs that benefit the health of our community and conservation of our oceans.

Grants from private and corporate foundations support education opportunities, animal care and services for marine mammals and conservation. In addition, grant funding provides the means to implement new and innovative programs that benefit the health of our community and conservation of our oceans.

The most direct and convenient way to make a gift is by credit card online. Click here to make your gift today.  Online giving to Marine Mammal Care Center is fast and secure, and can be done using Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express. You may also mail a check, payable to Marine Mammal Care Center, to:

Marine Mammal Care Center
3601 South Gaffey Street, #8, San Pedro, CA, 90731

Your gift may be able to be doubled or tripled if your company offers a corporate matching program.  Many workplaces will match their employees’ charitable contributions. Some matching gifts programs also include gifts by spouses or retirees.  If you or your spouse work for a matching gift company, please request a matching gift form (from your Human Resources office) and enclose it with your gift.  It’s a great way to double or triple the value of your gift to Marine Mammal Care Center.

Gifts of stocks, bonds and mutual fund accounts may provide considerable tax advantages when used to fund a charitable contribution gift to Marine Mammal Care Center.  Gifts of appreciated – and depreciated – assets offer tax-wise advantages.  Please call Marine Mammal Care Center at (310) 548-5677 for details on how to make a gift of stock or other type of investment account.

Gifts from your Donor Advised Fund offer an easy way to support Marine Mammal Care Center. You simply need to share our address 3601 S Gaffey St #8, San Pedro, CA 90731 with the Donor Advised Fund’s administrator when you recommend a grant to Marine Mammal Care Center.

For donors who are 70½ and older, the U.S. IRS allows you to make a distribution directly from your IRA to Marine Mammal Care Center for up to $100,000 per year.  For married couples who each have an IRA, the limit is $200,000 per year.  Many donors do this each year as a way to satisfy the IRA’s Required Minimum Distribution rules.

You may have a life insurance policy that you purchased years ago to protect your family and, today, you may no longer need this life insurance policy.  There are several ways to use a life insurance policy in support of Marine Mammal Care Center.  The ultimate insurance proceeds can fund a special commitment to the work of Marine Mammal Care Center, perhaps by creating an endowment that would make a difference for generations to come.  You may:

• Designate Marine Mammal Care Center as the beneficiary (or partial beneficiary) of a life insurance policy. This offers no income tax benefit but it does offer estate tax advantages.   
• Donate a paid-up life insurance policy by naming Marine Mammal Care Center as the owner and beneficiary.  This offers optimal tax advantages based on the policy’s cash value.  

Give a policy that still requires premium payments.  In this case, you can actually switch from making the premium payments directly to making annual – tax deductible – gifts to Marine Mammal Care Center; and, Marine Mammal Care Center will make the premium payments on the life insurance policy. A great win-win gift opportunity.

The most common way that donors make legacy commitments to Marine Mammal Care Center is by a testamentary gift.   Whether in a Will or Trust, such a gift is relatively easy to establish in your estate plans.  All that is necessary to create a legacy gift for Marine Mammal Care Center is a provision that designates Marine Mammal Care Center to receive a distribution at the time of your death.  In your Will, this is called a Bequest; and, in your Trust, this is called a Grant or Trust Distribution. 

There are several ways you can make your legacy gift:  

• You can simply designate a specific amount to be distributed for Marine Mammal Care Center
• You can indicate that the gift will be a specific percentage of your estate (or Trust)
• You can earmark all or part of your estate’s residue for the benefit of Marine Mammal Care Center

You also can indicate in our plans whether you wish to provide the testamentary gift as unrestricted support for Marine Mammal Care Center or designate your testamentary gift to support a particular program or purpose that is especially meaningful to you and your family,

Testamentary gifts are popular with donors because they are a very flexible way to make a commitment now and retain the opportunity to adjust your commitment at any time your circumstances may change.  

In the case of estates that may be taxable under federal estate or state inheritance tax laws, testamentary gifts may offer an optimal opportunity to make a generous gift that helps offset a significant portion of the tax liability that otherwise would be imposed at the time of your death.

Sample Bequest Language

A Bequest Designated for Unrestricted Use:

To support the work of the Marine Mammal Care Center of Los Angeles in San Pedro, CA (Tax ID Number #47-5249182, I make a bequest to Marine Mammal Care Center of Los Angeles.  My intention is that this unrestricted gift will support Marine Mammal Care Center in carrying out its mission. The amount of this gift is the sum of _________ dollars. [OR: …an amount equal to ________ percent of the net value of my estate.  OR: …all the residue of my estate.] 

A Bequest Designated for a Restricted Purpose:

To support the work of the Marine Mammal Care Center of Los Angeles in San Pedro, CA (Tax ID Number #47-5249182), I make a bequest to Marine Mammal Care Center of Los Angeles. The amount of this gift is the sum of _________ dollars. My intention is that this gift will be used for the benefit of [a specific program or purpose] at Marine Mammal Care Center, as it goes about its mission. The amount of this gift is the sum of _________ dollars. [OR: …an amount equal to ________ percent of the net value of my estate.  OR: …all the residue of my estate.]

A relatively simple way to benefit both you and Marine Mammal Care Center is a Charitable Trust.  You can choose to either benefit you now and Marine Mammal Care Center later or benefit Marine Mammal Care Center now and you (or your family) later.  Here’s how Charitable Trusts work:

• You would transfer cash or other assets (such as, appreciated stock) to be held in a charitable trust that would provide payments to you (or other beneficiaries), at least quarterly.  These payments would be set at five percent (or more) of the principal in the trust.  Then, at the death of the beneficiary, the remaining balance in the trust would go to the Sister Concetta Fund for Marine Mammal Care Center to fulfill your intended purpose of supporting the work of Marine Mammal Care Center for generations to come.
• Or, you can create a charitable trust that makes payments for Marine Mammal Care Center for a set number of years (or for your life) – according to your wishes – and then, after this period of payments concludes, the remaining balance would be distributed either back to you or to beneficiaries you name in the trust document.