Support ECHOS: Your Donation Changes Lives

ECHOS began in 2015 to address homelessness in Elizabethtown and has grown into a nonprofit serving over 800 households annually across Northwest Lancaster County. Through housing programs, eviction prevention, and emergency shelter, we empower families facing housing instability.

Private donations are vital to our mission, providing the flexibility to respond to urgent needs and sustain programs that create lasting impact. Your contribution directly supports local families, offering hope, stability, and a path forward.

Join us in building a stronger community.

As the seasonality of our services ebbs and flows, partners who invest monthly or on a regular basis in our Giving Circle enable us to continue providing the high-level of service to all the families who come through our doors with a need. One of the values of monthly giving is for the organization to have stable funds, ensuring our programs remain in service for our community to utilize. We are inviting you to give monthly so that we can apply your donations wherever we need the support. Just $55 could provide an interview outfit and haircut to an eager young man seeking a higher wage job or two tanks of gas for a family struggling to make it to medical appointments.

Planned Giving with ECHOS

You can give to enhance the future sustainability of ECHOS through many legacy and estate planning vehicles. Consider a bequest in your will, a gift of life insurance, a donation from your IRA, or the gift of an appreciated asset such as stock or real estate. There are many creative and strategic solutions that allow you to receive an income while still generously blessing our community mission.

Ways to Give

Gifts of Property
You can donate a house, building, vehicle, or other asset for ECHOS to use or sell.
Gift of Life Insurance Policy
No taxation of income. Tax deduction on lesser of policy cash value or tax basis. Charity takes control of policy.
IRA Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s)
For those 72 or older, an individual can take a distribution from their IRA, which is a taxable event for the individual, and gift any portion of the funds to a not-for-profit. The donor will receive the tax deduction on the charitable contribution in the year the donation occurs.
Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD)
For those 70 ½ or older, an individual can make a charitable distribution directly from the IRA to the not-for-profit, never receiving the funds themselves. Dependent upon the donation amount, the distribution fulfills all or part of the annual IRA Required Minimum Distribution amount. In addition, the individual pays no taxes on the distribution, and the not-for-profit receives 100% of the contribution with no tax impact to the organization or the donor.
Donor Advised Fund
No taxation of income. Tax deduction on gift, not given directly to charity, but is directed as donor sees fit over time.
Charitable Lead Trust
No taxation of income. Remainder of trust to children, grandchildren. Reduces annual income tax. Deduction allowed on creation.
Gifts of Stock
No taxation of income. Tax deduction up to 30% AGI; carries forward for five additional years.