Advantages

Community Foundations are a one-stop-shop for access to your local charitable community. A community foundation knows its community and the nonprofit organizations that so vitally contribute to the area's quality of life. It is our job to add insight, connections, leverage, and access to the charitable issues and organizations people care about. We have resources to conduct research and due diligence on any charitable interest, nationally and internationally.

Flexibility
The flexibility of the Community Foundation provides a wide spectrum of options. A donor can name his or her own fund.

Is it your wish to support the Arts? Health Care? Education? Human Services? The Environment? A donor can support his or her own charitable interests through the Community Foundation.

Are you interested in one or more specific charitable organizations? Support all of them through the Community Foundation.

Do you want to leave a lasting legacy that will meet the most pressing needs of the people in our community now and in the future? The Community Foundation can help you accomplish this.

Permanence
The large permanent charitable endowment funds of the Community Foundation ensure its future. Thus, the Community Foundation will oversee a donor's fund in perpetuity, making sure that it is used exactly as intended.

Convenience
Funds may be established with a minimum of legal complexity. They also provide a real alternative to those interested in establishing a private foundation and may offer tax benefits and cost savings that private foundations cannot.

Cost-Effectiveness
The generosity of individuals, private foundations, and businesses have created a permanent fund that helps underwrite a portion of the operations of theCommunity Foundation. This keeps the Community Foundation's administrative costs very low. In addition, because a number of charitable funds are combined, donors' funds receive economies of scale for investment as well as administrative costs.

Tax Benefit
The Community Foundation qualifies as a public charity under federal tax law. Gifts made during a donor's lifetime may result in important tax advantages and bequests to the Community Foundation are deductible for federal estate tax purposes.

Recognition
Funds established in the names of donors or loved ones stand as personal monuments, continuing to enrich the lives of all.

Professional Management
In addition to an experienced staff, Community Foundation assets are invested by some of the nation's most outstanding financial management firms. Investments are monitored closely by a separate investment committee, chosen for their experience and perspective in financial management.