Spotting opportunity: Moving from a commercial fund to The Community Foundation

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Spotting opportunity: Moving from a commercial fund to The Community Foundation

Although a donor-advised fund, which is becoming a more and more popular charitable planning tool, can be established through a national financial institution, The Community Foundation offers its donor-advised fund holders much broader services, more personal attention, and deeper connections to the nonprofits whose work is essential to effecting positive community change. Unfortunately, many attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors are simply not aware that a donor-advised fund established at The Community Foundation is in most cases a far better fit for their clients than a donor-advised fund set up at a “commercial gift fund.”

As you meet with your clients about year-end planning, be sure to ask whether they’ve established a donor-advised fund and if so, where it’s housed. If a client’s donor-advised fund is not at a community foundation, but instead was established through a national provider, please give us a call. We would be happy to talk with you and your client about the ease and benefits of moving the donor-advised fund to The Community Foundation.

The Community Foundation offers donor-advised fund holders the same tax and administrative benefits as a commercial gift fund, including:

  • Online access to the donor-advised fund to view balances, contributions, and grants
  • Simple process for requesting grants to favorite charities
  • Streamlined tax reporting, often represented by just one letter to provide to an accountant at tax time, even when the donor-advised fund is used to support dozens of individual charities throughout the year
  • All back-office administration, tax receipts, recordkeeping, and other requirements for the donor-advised fund’s 501(c)(3) status
  • Favorable tax-deductibility of contributions to the fund

Unlike standard commercial gift funds, though, The Community Foundation offers high-level, customized services to its donor-advised fund holders, including:

  • Concierge-level service by knowledgeable staff to structure estate gifts to charities and accept gifts of appreciated stock or complex assets such as real estate or closely-held stock
  • In-house experts who have a finger on the pulse of community needs, the strengths of specific nonprofits, and how to structure grant making for the highest possible community benefit
  • Opportunities to collaborate with other donors who care about similar issues and forums to tap into local and national subject matter experts
  • Opportunities to go deep into specific issue areas, both through education and hands-on involvement
  • Assistance with structuring and measuring the impact of grants
  • Family philanthropy and corporate giving services to foster a well-rounded, holistic approach to philanthropy
  • Administrative fees that are reinvested into The Community Foundation, itself a nonprofit, to help support operations, grow its mission, and help even more donors support the causes they care about
  • Hands-on assistance from local experts who understand both local and distant needs, and welcome the opportunity to research and identify causes aligned with donors’ goals and priorities
  • Staff members who live in the community they serve and often personally know the leaders and staff of grantee organizations and regularly hear about their needs first-hand

Keep an eye out for clients’ donor-advised funds at commercial gift funds. You’ll be doing a tremendous service for your client, and you’ll be helping the local community. You will also be fulfilling your own professional responsibilities by exploring the opportunity for a client to move a donor-advised fund to The Community Foundation. At The Community Foundation, hard-earned assets receive the attention they deserve as your clients strive to make a difference in the causes they care about the most.

 

 

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Great Community Give – Early Giving Begins Today!

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The Great Community Give takes place on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 from sunrise to sunset. April 7 begins a period of Early Giving for this annual event.

What is ‘Early Giving’?

Early Giving is defined as the time range where donors can make their gifts to their favorite local charities before the Great Community Give event on April 21, 2021. Donors can make a gift to a participating nonprofit organization starting April 7, 2021 through April 20, 2021. Donors’ gifts will not be displayed on the website until 6:30AM on April 21, 2021. Donors’ ‘early gifts’ will be counted towards nonprofits’ overall online fundraising totals and will count towards determination of Leaderboard prizes. Early gifts will NOT count towards the determination of Power Hour prizes or Golden Tickets on the day of Great Community Give.

Donors’ payment methods, whether they be credit cards, e-checks, ($50 or more), or Mobile Wallet, will be immediately charged once their donation has been made.

NEW! Give back via cash and checks sent DIRECTLY to your favorite nonprofit organizations. Make checks payable to the nonprofit of your choice and write ‘Great Community Give’ in the memo line.

Another Anonymous Donor Challenges Donations for COVID-19 Fund

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The Community Foundation and The United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are pleased to announce a second anonymous gift of $20,000 from a generous community member. The donor states, “Now is the time to give to support members of our community who have lost their jobs and don’t have a savings account to fall back on”. The donor encourages others to give and is offering this gift as a challenge. The donor will provide a dollar for dollar match, up to $20,000 for new gifts given to the COVID-19 Harrisonburg Rockingham Community Response Fund which means this could be an additional $40,000 to this Fund. The Community Foundation received and met its first $20,000 challenge from another generous anonymous donor. With both of these gifts, an additional $80,000 can be raised for our community.

“We are very grateful to both anonymous gifts and for each contribution that has helped us exceed the first challenge. To date the funding has been granted to local nonprofit organizations that are focused on basic essentials, access to food and access to safe shelter.  It has provided funding for nutrition drinks for the elderly, food supplies for those in need, vehicle repairs and gas cards for working low income individuals, hygiene items, rent assistance, and financial assistance to shelters for hotel bills for clients who need to be quarantined.” – Revlan Hill, Executive Director of The Community Foundation.

The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County and the United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County announced a joint partnership to raise funds for the COVID-19 Harrisonburg Rockingham Community Response Fund. Gifts may be mailed to The Community Foundation at PO Box 1068, Harrisonburg, VA 22803, or given online at www.tcfhr.org.

GreatCommunityGive 2020 postponed until June

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The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County has announced that the Great Community Give, slated for April 22nd has been rescheduled for June 24th, 2020.  The GCG2020 Planning Committee considered as much relevant information as possible to unanimously agree that delaying the event was necessary.

“We have to give consideration to minimizing health risks to the nonprofit staff and volunteers until COVID-19 cases begin to subside. GCG uses countless volunteers on the day of the event.  While the giving occurs online, it is also a social occasion on many levels.   For the purposes of planning, we have chosen June 24th as an optimistic date and hope it turns out to be the case. “– Revlan Hill, Executive Director of The Community Foundation.

“Although a difficult decision, postponing the event is best for everyone. We feel we can have more excitement and enthusiasm by gathering again as groups.  We believe the Great Community Give will be more successful for the nonprofits and less risky for health reasons later in June.  We owe it to the nonprofits to help them raise the most money we can” – Amanda Bomfim, Program Officer, The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County.

The Great Community Give is in its third year as a community-wide day of online giving to 100 local nonprofits. The Planning Committee hopes that in moving the date, the goal of raising $600,000 for local nonprofits can be achieved. Planning for GCG2020 will continue through the new date of June 24.

 

In the meantime, The Community Foundation is actively encouraging donors to remember nonprofits in this time of social-distancing requirements and will continue its grant making to nonprofit organizations. Efforts to support nonprofit organizations during the COVID-19 crisis are ongoing. The Community Foundation and United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County have jointly announced the establishment of the COVID-19 HR Community Response Fund. Grants from the fund will help support front line human services organizations that have deep roots in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County and strong experience working with those vulnerable in our community.

 

“We encourage everyone to write a check or go online and give to your favorite community based nonprofit organization today.   Our community is well known for its generosity of giving and we don’t have to wait for the Great Community Give on June 24th to make that contribution.   “– Revlan Hill, Executive Director of The Community Foundation.

 

Please contact Amanda  Bomfim at 540-432-3863 or amanda@tcfhr.org for information and interviews.  To learn about Great Community Give, visit www.greatcommunitygive.org

Giving Back 2019-2020 published

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The 2019-2020 edition of Giving Back is published as an insert in today’s Daily News-Record. Local nonprofit organizations submit project funding needs through an application process once each year and all are featured in this publication. As you plan your charitable giving for the rest of 2019 and into 2020, please use this resource to provide more information on the needs of the nonprofit community in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.

 

Join us as we Dream. Share. Build. OUR COMMUNITY!

 

 

2018 Annual Report

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2019 GreatCommunityGive Only 3 Weeks Away!

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The GreatCommunityGive is one day when the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County community come together to raise money for area nonprofits who work all year round. On Wednesday, April 17, individuals in our community have the opportunity to support 89 different nonprofit organizations through online donations.

 

Our 2019 goal is to raise $333,000 on April 17 from 3,333 unique donors for community nonprofits. It is easy to give:

  • Point, Click, Give.
  • You can schedule your giving.
  • You can donate $10, $20, or more, to as many organizations as you wish.
  • Join in the fun and be part of a community wide effort!

Daily News-Record publishes ‘Giving Back’ – November 2018

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If you would like to have a print version of this booklet, please stop by our offices at 317 S. Main Street in December to pick up your copy, or call The Community Foundation directly, 540-432-3863, and we can mail one to you.

 

Download PDF

Daily News-Record publishes ‘Giving Back’ – May 19, 2018

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If you would like to have a print version of this booklet, please stop by our offices at 317 S. Main Street to pick up your copy, or call The Community Foundation directly, 540-432-3863, and we can mail one to you.

 

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No Grant Distribution June 25 – 29

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Grants will not be processed by The Community Foundation during the week of June 25-29, 2018. If you wish for a grant to be distributed by the end of June, please be sure to submit that request no later than noon on Tuesday, June 19.

Grant distribution will resume the week of July 2-6 for all submissions received in our office by noon on Tuesday, July 3.

We appreciate your patience and flexibility with staff vacation schedules and their impact on slight changes in our regular grant distribution cycle during the summer months.