Hello from the community foundation!
We are rounding the corner into summer! All year long, the community foundation team is committed to offering thoughtful charitable planning tools and resources so that you and your family can support your favorite causes while creating lasting impact across our community. It is always our honor and pleasure to share some of the ways the community foundation can help you strengthen your charitable giving strategies, especially right now as you carve out time to reflect and regroup over the next few months.
A moment to meet: Philanthropy’s crucial role now and in the future
What does it mean to “meet the moment” through charitable giving? A “portfolio” approach to charitable giving, developed in partnership with the community foundation, can combine thoughtful planning, flexibility, and consistency, helping you respond quickly to current community needs while also supporting long-term impact.
“Nice to meet you”: Introducing your advisors to the community foundation team
Your attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors play an important part in helping you achieve your financial and charitable goals. Learn how introducing your advisors to the community foundation team can strengthen collaboration and uncover new charitable planning opportunities.
All that and more: Your donor-advised fund may surprise you
Many donors are discovering that donor-advised funds at the community foundation can do far more than they originally imagined. Discover creative ways your donor-advised fund can champion your charitable goals, engage future generations, and adapt alongside life’s major transitions, all while benefiting from the support of the experienced team at the community foundation.
As always, thank you for allowing the community foundation to be part of your charitable journey. We are honored to help you bring your philanthropic goals to life and strengthen our community for generations to come.
—Your community foundation
THIS MONTH’S
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A moment to meet: Philanthropy’s crucial role
Over the last several years, communities across the country, including our own region, have faced moments of enormous challenge—from natural disasters and economic uncertainty to housing shortages and growing mental health needs. Increasingly, the community foundation team is talking with donors and fund holders about how their charitable giving can make the biggest difference right now. This idea is being described in industry circles as “meeting the moment.”
In the simplest terms, meeting the moment means responding thoughtfully and generously to the needs that matter most today while still keeping long-term community impact in mind. Sometimes that means supporting immediate emergency relief efforts. Other times, it means helping nonprofits today so that they can build long-term solutions that strengthen our community for years to come.
Here are three tips that may help you and your family consider how you can make the biggest difference:
Think broadly about your charitable giving plan
Many fund holders have adopted a “portfolio approach” to their philanthropy, leaning on the community foundation to serve as a convenient and strategic hub. For example, your charitable giving “portfolio” at the community foundation might include a donor-advised fund to support your annual and ongoing charitable giving, legacy provisions to ensure that your impact extends across future generations, capacity-building gifts to the community foundation itself to ensure the growth of philanthropy and impact across our region, and special “field of interest” or “designated funds” to support particular focus areas or specific nonprofit organizations as needs ebb and flow. The combination of multiple fund types and giving structures helps ensure that your dollars make the biggest difference.
Incorporate flexibility as you carry out your charitable giving plan
With the appropriate funds and planning vehicles in place, many donors take the next step to ensure their charitable portfolio allows for flexible funding during times of crisis and transition. Specifically, nonprofits in our community often need unrestricted support so they can respond quickly to changing conditions, invest in staff capacity, and continue serving people effectively even after headlines fade. Donors who understand this can play a powerful role in helping organizations remain resilient and responsive. The community foundation can help you identify instances where it’s most beneficial simply to provide general support to nonprofit organizations, rather than designating your gift to a specific program or desired outcome.
Consistency is key
Meeting the moment does not mean changing all your charitable priorities overnight, only to revert them back when the moment has passed. There will always be moments of need! Instead, “meeting the moment” means staying informed about current community needs with the help of the community foundation team, remaining flexible in the causes you support and the ways you support them, and responding quickly when your philanthropy can create meaningful impact and your community needs it most. Sometimes, even a small adjustment in timing, focus, or funding approach can make a big difference in the lives of people in need.
As always, the community foundation is here to help. Our team members are deeply connected to local nonprofits and community leaders, which means we are uniquely positioned to identify emerging needs and opportunities for impact. Whether you want to respond to a current challenge, support a specific cause area, or balance immediate needs with long-term charitable goals, the community foundation can help you structure your overall giving strategy and serve as a sounding board as you carry out your plans.
Please reach out anytime!
“Nice to meet you”: Introducing your advisors to the community foundation team
At the community foundation, we are honored to work with many individuals, families, and businesses who support the causes that matter most to them and help make our entire community a better place to live. In many cases, trusted professional advisors, including attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, are helping donors make important decisions about taxes, investments, estate planning, and family wealth.
All of this is wonderful! There’s one more step, however, that is often overlooked: Connecting the dots. If you are a donor or fund holder at the community foundation, or plan to establish a fund in the near future, please consider introducing your advisors to the community foundation team. A simple introduction can make a tremendous difference in ultimately achieving your charitable goals. Here’s why:
Attorneys, CPAs, and wealth managers are experts in many aspects of financial and estate planning, and their work is essential in helping you develop and implement strategies through legal documentation, tax filings, and other technical guidance. Not all advisors, however, are experts in charitable giving.
The community foundation, by comparison, brings to the table specialized knowledge about charitable giving strategies, local nonprofit needs, philanthropic tools that may be best suited for your particular situation, and the types of assets you might consider giving to achieve your goals.
The community foundation certainly does not offer legal, tax, or financial advice, but we absolutely stay current on legal, tax, and charitable developments. In turn, we can keep you and your advisors informed about which trends to watch.
When you establish a fund at the community foundation as part of your charitable plan, our team will handle the paperwork and administration to create and manage that fund. This is often a relief to your advisors, not to mention a relief to you!
Importantly, collaborative conversations among donors, advisors, and the community foundation are not only for ultra-high-net-worth families. Even relatively straightforward charitable plans can benefit from collaboration between your advisors and the community foundation. In many cases, donors discover giving opportunities they might not otherwise have considered. What’s more, many advisors appreciate having philanthropic specialists available to help explore charitable strategies that benefit both the donor and the causes they care about.
So what can you do? We invite and encourage you to take the lead! A simple email introducing each of your advisors to the community foundation team is often all that is required to open the door to better communication and stronger planning. The community foundation is always happy to join a conversation with you and your advisors, but a baseline introduction is the most critical part.
When professionals work together, the result is often a more coordinated and impactful charitable plan. By connecting your advisors with the community foundation, you help create a team that can support both your financial goals and your desire to make a lasting difference. We look forward to hearing from you—and meeting your advisors! Thank you for all you do to make our community a better place.
All that and more: Your donor-advised fund may surprise you
You might initially think of a donor-advised fund as a simple charitable savings account: contribute assets, immediately receive a tax deduction, if eligible, and recommend grants to your favorite 501(c)(3) nonprofits over time. While that is certainly true, many people are surprised to learn just how flexible a donor-advised fund at the community foundation can be.
For many donors, the creative use of donor-advised funds at the community foundation opens the door to a larger charitable impact than they originally thought possible. Here’s how:
Your fund grows and changes alongside your life
Many people do not realize that a donor-advised fund at the community foundation can help simplify giving during major life transitions. If you are preparing for retirement, selling a business, receiving an inheritance, or navigating a particularly high-income year, your donor-advised fund can provide flexibility in both timing for income tax planning and philanthropic grantmaking decisions. What’s more, during many of these transitions, it may make sense to look beyond cash gifts and explore using appreciated stock, closely held business interests, real estate, and other noncash assets to fund your charitable goals in tax-efficient ways.
Your fund can help you engage the next generation
Some donors are using donor-advised funds at the community foundation to involve children and grandchildren in family philanthropy. Because grants can be recommended over many years to 501(c)(3) organizations locally and across the country, donor-advised funds create opportunities for ongoing conversations about values, generosity, and community impact across generations.
The community foundation supports your areas of focus
Working with your local community foundation adds the important elements of flexibility, personalization, and expertise. Unlike national commercial donor-advised fund providers, community foundations combine the administrative advantages of a donor-advised fund with deep local knowledge and personalized philanthropic support. The community foundation can help identify community needs, connect you with nonprofit organizations of all shapes and sizes, and explore creative strategies tailored to your own charitable interests. The community foundation is here to help you support your favorite causes, whatever they may be.
The takeaway? Your donor-advised fund at the community foundation is much more than just a giving account—it is a flexible tool for building a thoughtful, lasting charitable legacy that supports your favorite causes and the community as a whole. Please reach out to our team to expand your impact and enjoy your philanthropy even more!
The team at the community foundation is honored to serve as a resource and sounding board as you build your charitable plans and pursue your philanthropic objectives for making a difference in the community. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. Please consult your tax or legal advisor to learn how this information might apply to your own situation.