HOW IT WORKS
Fund Overview
Anyone can start a fund at the Foundation and we have many different options depending on your goals. Typically the Foundation requests a $10,000 minimum and charges a 1.5% or 1.75% fee.
- Donor Designated (grants designated in the fund agreement and the Foundation sends the spendable each year)
- Donor Advised (grants selected annually)
- Field of Interest (education, health, children, etc.)
Definition of Endowment Funds
When donations are designated for an endowment fund, it means the donation is invested (not spent), and the annual earnings are used to support charitable organizations or causes. This helps impact the nonprofits you love for forever while also supporting the Foundation with our overhead through the annual fund fees. This fee helps run our grant and scholarship programs as well as daily operations.
Reasons Donors Like Endowment Funds At Community Foundations
- When a donor has more than one charitable interest, they can make one gift to an endowment fund and name several organizations as recipients of a portion of the annual distribution
- Endowments are expected to grow over time
- Donors like endowment funds to be an arms-length away from the organization they want to benefit
- Some organizations do not have the capability of handling complex, charitable gifts (land, commodities, business interests)
- Some organizations do not understand the endowment (never spending the principal) concept
- Most organizations do not have estate planning expertise
- Resources stay in the community