Our Community Foundation thrives on connecting donors with the fun of philanthropy. We want donors to enjoy giving back with their family and friends and to see the impact of their giving.

The impact a donor seeks and can have in our community can be now or in the future, locally or nationwide. When it comes to the timeline for giving, we’re here to help our donors give it all away during their lifetime or set up a fund that will benefit the community for generations to come.

Recently, we had a dear friend and donor pass away who believed in the power of endowed funds. As a Women’s Initiative member, Marcia Haynes wanted to help the Women’s Initiative endowment continue to grow. She knew that by growing the endowment with her end-of-life gift of life insurance that the mission of supporting causes women cared about locally would continue for her daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughters.

On another note, a long-time friend of the Community Foundation sat down with us to create a fund that would spend down in 20 years. He wanted to benefit hard working local students during his lifetime in honor of a lifelong mentor versus waiting until he passed away to make a significant legacy gift.

Both donors are going to make important local impact and help our community in ways they are passionate about. Each donor worked closely with us to talk about options and ideas and to come up with a charitable plan that suited them best.

These planning options aren’t true for all charitable foundations, some focus solely on building community capital through endowment funds, which are permanent funds where the earnings are available for grants.

Other charitable foundations are set with a specific timeframe in mind to expend all funds or they are set up with the idea that they may give it all away at some point in time. You typically hear these called non-endowed funds.

Our Community Foundation’s focus has always been to help our donors connect with the best way in which they can make a difference, no matter their giving timeline, which has given us a rich mix of endowed and non-endowed funds to support our community.

The way we see it, we’ll be here another 78 years continuing to build a vibrant and prosperous community because donors with a long-term focus on giving and donors with a here and now focus on giving are engaged with the work we do and our local opportunities and needs as they change over time. It takes donors of both mindsets to make a difference and we’re proud to help them do just that in their timeframe.