The Foundation provides numerous benefits to donors establishing funds through the
Berrien Community Foundation, including:
- Your gift will keep giving.
The endowed fund that receives your contribution will continue to benefit the community now and in future years.
- Your gift will meet changing community needs.
Many donors place no restrictions on how spendable of their funds is to be used and leave the decision to the Foundation's Board of Trustees. If the intended purposes of your gift become obsolete, the Foundation's authority to amend provisions of your fund will ensure that the fund will continue to meet future needs of the community.
- Your gift may be designated for a specific purpose.
As you establish your own fund, you may specify its purpose or purposes. You may also specify whether
spendable only (endowed) or the entire balance (nonendowed) are to be spent.
- You may choose any name you wish for your fund -- your own or that of your family, a friend, or an organization. Such funds are open ended and may be increased at any time by additional gifts. Grants from your fund will always be recorded in the name of the fund, a lasting symbol of your caring.
- Contributions can ease your tax burden.
Contributions made to the Foundation qualify for deductibility for income, gift, and estate tax purposes.
Those who create donor advised funds receive a charitable tax deduction in the year the gift is given and then may suggest distributions from the fund over a longer period of time.
This flexibility may also be helpful in retirement planning, providing a
charitable savings account allowing you to support your community in your
retirement years at a similar level to when you were working. To create a
legacy, you may then endow the donor advised fund with an estate gift, thus
forever supporting your favorite nonprofits and projects.
- All contributions are professionally managed.
The Foundation provides sound and flexible administration that smaller individual trusts or foundations may not be able to
provide. Because funds in a community foundation are pooled for investment purposes, donors have the advantage of a diversified investment
portfolio.
- The Foundation is publicly accountable.
Annual reporting through an independent audit and filing of tax returns, public
disclosure of all grant activities, and careful selection of our Board of Trustees
ensure continued use of funds in the
public interest.
For more
information, contact
Nanette Keiser,
Ed.D., President
NanetteKeiser@BerrienCommunity.org
269-983-3486 or 269-983-3304, ext. 1
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