Ways to Give
Decide on your Charitable Goal
If You Want To |
You May |
| Make an outright gift | Use many different kinds of assets to make your gift, including cash, stocks and bonds, life insurance, retirement plans, mutual fund shares, real estate or other appreciated property. |
| Transfer assets from a private foundation. | Establish a fund within the Community Foundation in the name of your private foundation. By arranging to transfer all or part of the assets, you also transfer the burden of paperwork, accounting, taxes, and other responsibilities to the Community Foundation. Some private foundations partner with us, using our expertise in evaluating grant requests. |
| Make a gift and retain income during your lifetime | Various giving structures allow you to make a significant gift but also retain income or achieve other financial goals for yourself, your family or your estate. We encourage you or your professional advisor to contact us for more information about how a planned gift can work for you. In most cases, these types of gifts offer significant tax advantages:
Charitable Gift Annuities |
| Give by will or trust— The easiest gift of all! | Remember the Community Foundation in your will. You can remember your charitable interests with a bequest to the Community Foundation through your will or a revocable trust. You can specify either a specific dollar amount or a percentage of your estate, or you can name the Foundation a residual beneficiary. |
| Be actively involved in choosing the projects you will support | Establish a Donor-Advised Fund A donor-advised fund is the appropriate choice if you wish to remain highly involved in your charitable giving. During the year, you can consult staff or simply provide written recommendations as to where you'd like your money to go. Any nonprofit organization is an eligible recipient. This type of fund can also provide a great opportunity to involve your family in a tradition of philanthropy. |
| Create a long-term fund, but don't want to determine how it will be spent | Establish an Unrestricted Fund An unrestricted fund is the most flexible type of fund and also the most responsive to changing community needs. By creating an unrestricted fund, you essentially ask the Foundation's board and staff to direct your gift to where they think it will do the most good. They will make grants from the fund to meet the most important needs today, and in the future. |
| Support a specific organization (or more than one) for your lifetime and beyond | Create a Designated Fund Designated funds allow you to identify specific nonprofit organizations as grant beneficiaries. With a single gift, you can establish an ongoing program that issues grants on a regular schedule to one or more nonprofit organizations. |
| Help students receive an education | Establish a Scholarship Fund When you establish a scholarship fund, you can specify such criteria as community of residence, field of study, or specific schools the students come from or attend. |
| Support a charitable interest, but have no specific organization you want to support | Create a Field-of-Interest Fund Through a field-of-interest fund you can focus your giving as narrowly or as broadly as you choose. Whether your interest is in arts, education, health issues, or simply supporting charitable projects in your hometown, you can depend on the Foundation to carry out your wishes now and into the future. |
| Make a general gift that the Foundation can pool with other gifts | Make a gift to the Charitable Foundation’s Community Fund Gifts of all sizes are welcome to the Charitable Foundation’s Community Fund, which provides resources for immediate grant making needs identified by the Foundation. Gifts also support public initiatives, research and other projects to improve the quality of life in our communities. |
