A community foundation is a vehicle for people of all means to make a lasting difference in their community. The central purpose of a community foundation is to serve the needs and philanthropic aims of donors who wish to better their community, now and in the future. Community foundations do this by providing donors with flexible, efficient, and tax-effective ways to ensure their charitable giving achieves the greatest possible impact.
The concept of a community foundation is as ingenious as it is simple - it is
a means to build, over time, substantial endowment funds for a community through
contributions large and small.
Because these contributions are endowed, they are never spent. Instead, they are permanently invested to produce income. The income earned is then used to help meet the community's charitable needs - from social work to art and culture. So gifts to a community foundation continue to benefit your community forever. This is a philanthropy in its broadest sense.
A community foundation does not usually conduct programs of its own. Rather, it supports new or existing programs of other non-profit organizations and agencies. It can also serve as a neutral convener, bringing diverse opinions and players together for the good of the whole community.
But a community foundation's principal function remains that of serving donors and their community by building permanent endowed funds for philanthropic purposes.
Donors like you may set up individual funds, in your own name or the name of a loved one, and have essentially as little or as much as control as you wish in determining which charities benefit from your fund.
Or, you may choose to contribute to a variety of existing funds, set up to serve particular purposes. Each community foundation also has a general endowment fund, the income from which is distributed by the community foundation's board of directors to address needs and opportunities in your community as they change over time.
A community foundation is governed by a local board of directors chosen for their knowledge of the community and designed to be representative of a broad cross-section of the community. The directors further possess expertise in the many areas of management necessary to carry out the stewardship functions of the foundation.
A community foundation is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All contributions are tax deductible to the maximum amount allowable for gifts to a public charity. Indeed, because community foundations are classified as public charities under the tax code, some donors are able to claim larger tax deductions on gifts to community foundations than they are on gifts to their own private foundations.
A community foundation represents a wide variety of ideas and interests of individual donors who have united in a common purpose - the bettering of their community both now and in the future.
Whatever your charitable intentions, there are ways to achieve them through your gifts to your community foundation.
