Fund Types Tailored to your Client’s Charitable Goals

Just as each client has a customized estate and financial plan tailored to their individual circumstances and objectives, every philanthropic client requires a distinct charitable giving strategy. For some clients, regularly donating shares of highly appreciated stock to their fund at the Community Foundation aligns best with their charitable goals and asset portfolio. Conversely, for other clients, leaving a bequest to the Community Foundation to endorse specific areas of interest matches their financial circumstances and community priorities more effectively.

The Community Foundation offers various charitable giving vehicles to meet a wide range of clients’ needs. In many cases, a single client can benefit from setting up multiple funds of different types.

Here’s a quick primer on a few of the most popular fund types:

• Donor-Advised Fund
   

  A donor-advised fund enables your client to establish a specific account for charitable giving while eliminating the need to establish a private foundation. Your client makes tax-deductible contributions of cash, stock, or other highly appreciated assets to the fund, and then recommends grants to favorite charities.

• Field of Interest Fund
   

  Clients who want to target their giving to specific areas of community or geographic need (such as education, health, environment, or the arts) can set up a field of interest fund to establish parameters for grant making under the ongoing guidance and expertise of the Community Foundation’s staff.

• Designated Fund
   

  A designated fund allows a client to direct giving to a specific charitable organization or multiple organizations. Community Foundation staff manage the distributions from the fund according to the terms established by your client.

• Agency Fund
   

  An agency fund provides permanent support for individual nonprofits. If your client serves on a charitable organization’s board of trustees, they’d likely be interested in learning more about agency funds. For professional advisors representing nonprofit organizations and their board members, it's important to remember that organizations often create agency funds at the Community Foundation to allocate endowment reserves or contingency funds. The team at the Community Foundation is adept at navigating the specific accounting standards that are unique to this type of arrangement.

• High Impact Funds at the Community Foundation
   

  The Community Foundation offers a few fund options that make a significant impact in our community. The Leadership Fund supports the Community Foundation’s strategic initiatives, proactive grants, and related Community Foundation capacity needs. Projects like Rotary Park and Play Michigan! depended on this fund. The Community Needs Fund is a perpetual fund that supports the charitable nonprofits and projects that meet the region’s current, greatest needs. In addition, the DEI Action Fund supports diversity, equity and inclusion programs and activities in our community.

If you represent clients who are age 70 ½ and older, consider recommending a Qualified Charitable Distribution from a client’s IRA to a fund at the Community Foundation. All the fund types noted above are eligible recipients, except the donor-advised fund. We look forward to working together to discover the type of fund (or funds!) at the Community Foundation that could be a good fit for each client’s unique charitable giving needs.