Fund Types & Structures

Sections

What­ev­er your char­i­ta­ble inter­ests, we offer sim­ple, flex­i­ble, and reward­ing ways to give — whether you are giv­ing $1,000 or $110,000.

We offer sev­en fund types to meet spe­cif­ic donor, non­prof­it, and com­mu­ni­ty phil­an­thropic needs. Each fund can be struc­tured in three dif­fer­ent ways depend­ing on the amount in the fund, its life expectan­cy, and the amount of expect­ed activity.

Fund Type vs. Fund Structure

How does a Fund Type dif­fer from a Fund Structure? 

Fund Type
A fund type is defined by its pur­pose, the means used to dis­burse grants, and lev­el of donor involve­ment. See var­i­ous fund type options below.

Fund Struc­ture
A fund struc­ture deter­mines a fund’s asset invest­ment and asso­ci­at­ed admin­is­tra­tive fees. Fund struc­tures are select­ed to match the envi­sioned life of the fund and the fre­quen­cy of dis­tri­b­u­tions. See var­i­ous fund struc­ture options below.

Fund Types & Structures

Don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact us if you have questions.

Select­ing the most appro­pri­ate fund type can aug­ment your giv­ing, increase your grant­i­ng options, and sim­pli­fy your record keep­ing. Not sure about specifics? Don’t wor­ry, we have fund types that give you room to maneuver.

Affin­i­ty Funds
We can work with groups of non-relat­ed donors who share a com­mon vision to cre­ate affin­i­ty funds, pro­vid­ing an effi­cient vehi­cle to pool con­tri­bu­tions and process grants. One form of col­lec­tive phil­an­thropy, affin­i­ty groups work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly to rec­om­mend grants that reflect their agreed-upon goals. Thurs­day Round­table is one affin­i­ty fund that we manage.

Agency Funds
Agency funds are an ide­al way to sim­pli­fy and enhance your non­prof­it organization’s asset man­age­ment by lever­ag­ing our pro­fes­sion­al man­age­ment, invest­ment com­mit­tee expe­ri­ence and port­fo­lio size. Non­prof­its can par­tic­i­pate in our endow­ment invest­ment port­fo­lio that they could not repli­cate on a stand-alone basis. Agency funds can pro­vide your orga­ni­za­tion with a per­ma­nent source of oper­at­ing income and pro­fes­sion­al­ly managed ​“rainy day” funds.

Award Funds
An award fund is a way to inspire and rec­og­nize excel­lence by award­ing mer­it-based grants to indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions, based upon fund hold­ers’ goals. We can assist in devel­op­ing award cri­te­ria as well as the selec­tion process to max­i­mize impact and ensure com­pli­ance with IRS rules.

Com­pet­i­tive Grant Funds
Increase the impact of your gift and put it to work, solv­ing our community’s most press­ing chal­lenges. Our Grants Com­mit­tee care­ful­ly vets Com­pet­i­tive Grant appli­ca­tions and makes awards based on com­mu­ni­ty need, impact, and orga­ni­za­tion­al capac­i­ty. Gifts to sup­port this fund can be des­ig­nat­ed for spe­cif­ic areas includ­ing ani­mals, arts & cul­ture, human ser­vices, edu­ca­tion, con­ser­va­tion & envi­ron­ment, civic engage­ment and recreation.

Des­ig­nat­ed Funds
With des­ig­nat­ed funds, you iden­ti­fy one or more qual­i­fied non­prof­its or projects as ben­e­fi­cia­ries when you cre­ate the fund. Your gift can address either imme­di­ate or long-term needs, and we will han­dle all the asset man­age­ment and disbursements.

Donor Advised Funds
Donor advised funds offer max­i­mum flex­i­bil­i­ty for grant­i­ng with imme­di­ate tax ben­e­fits. By open­ing a donor advised fund, you lock in the tax deduc­tion for the cur­rent year and can then take time to set your char­i­ta­ble goals for the long term. Fund hold­ers retain the abil­i­ty to rec­om­mend grants to qual­i­fied char­i­ties in the U.S. or abroad, when­ev­er they wish. We take care of track­ing grantees, pro­cess­ing pay­ments, and report­ing. All of the joy of giv­ing with none of the admin­is­tra­tion – what could be bet­ter? You main­tain ongo­ing advi­so­ry involve­ment and can also name chil­dren, or any­one else, as addi­tion­al or suc­ces­sor advi­sors to your fund. 

Schol­ar­ship Funds
Schol­ar­ship funds help indi­vid­u­als pur­sue edu­ca­tion­al or pro­fes­sion­al goals and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Donors can con­tribute to exist­ing funds or start new ones, rec­om­mend schol­ar­ship guide­lines and par­tic­i­pate in the selec­tion process with the Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation’s Schol­ar­ship Committee.

After iden­ti­fy­ing the fund that best fits your objec­tives, you will need to select a fund struc­ture based on the antic­i­pat­ed size, activ­i­ty lev­el, and life span of your fund. Fund struc­tures deter­mine admin­is­tra­tive fees, if any, and how fund assets are invest­ed. If your fund assets are in excess of $1 mil­lion you can rec­om­mend alter­na­tive invest­ment advi­sors or man­agers for your funds.

Spend Down
In spend down funds, the gift prin­ci­pal is whol­ly avail­able for grant­i­ng. We do not charge admin­is­tra­tive fees on spend down funds and there is no restric­tion on the num­ber of grants that you can dis­burse. Income earned on these funds accrues to ben­e­fit the Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation’s oper­at­ing fund. Spend down funds are char­i­ta­ble check­ing accounts that sup­port reg­u­lar, ongo­ing grant activity.

Endow­ment
Endow­ment funds pro­vide sta­ble, peren­ni­al finan­cial sup­port. Endow­ments oper­ate sim­i­lar­ly to pri­vate foun­da­tions that yield a set per­cent­age for grant­i­ng each year while elim­i­nat­ing admin­is­tra­tion. You can rec­om­mend grant recip­i­ents or pass your char­i­ta­ble lega­cy to your chil­dren. Invest­ment income accrues to the fund. We assess quar­ter­ly admin­is­tra­tive fees based on a per­cent­age of assets to sup­port the Foundation’s operations.

Investors Cir­cle
Investors Cir­cle fund hold­ers par­tic­i­pate in our invest­ment port­fo­lio. These funds can be struc­tured as either Spend Down or Endow­ment Funds, though they are not for­mal­ly endowed. Invest­ment income accrues to the fund. We assess quar­ter­ly admin­is­tra­tive fees based on a per­cent­age of assets, which sup­ports the Foundation’s operations.

Invest­ment Management

Con­tri­bu­tions of all sizes to funds held at the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion help to empow­er thought­ful phil­an­thropic invest­ment in our com­mu­ni­ty and beyond.

Since 1989, donors have trust­ed us to intel­li­gent­ly man­age and respon­si­bly allo­cate char­i­ta­ble resources. Togeth­er, much has been accom­plished, and all of our lives have been enriched.

Pru­dent stew­ard­ship of funds is our pri­or­i­ty. Our fund man­age­ment objec­tives are twofold. To:

  • Pre­serve and grow principal
  • Man­age risk

Our phi­los­o­phy is to pro­vide long-term sources of fund­ing that ben­e­fit both fund hold­ers and non­prof­its. To pur­sue this strat­e­gy, we rely on the pro­fes­sion­al judg­ment of our invest­ment advi­sors along with the local over­sight of our knowl­edge­able and expe­ri­enced Invest­ment Committee.

Our pooled invest­ments cre­ate an econ­o­my of scale that pro­vides access to advi­sors, man­agers, and invest­ment options that would not oth­er­wise be avail­able to small organizations.

Our expe­ri­enced staff work along side the Invest­ment Com­mit­tee and Can­ter­bury Con­sult­ing to ensure the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion’s invest­ment port­fo­lio is prop­er­ly stew­ard­ed. The Invest­ment Com­mit­tee is a Board of Direc­tors sub­com­mit­tee respon­si­ble for imple­ment­ing the invest­ment poli­cies estab­lished by the Board and mak­ing rec­om­men­da­tions to the Board or Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee with respect to pos­si­ble changes in those poli­cies. Our invest­ment advi­sor, Can­ter­bury Con­sult­ing, is con­sis­tent in imple­ment­ing our invest­ment pol­i­cy, focus­ing on risk-adjust­ed returns. We adhere to a board-approved State­ment of Invest­ment Objec­tives and Poli­cies, the Uni­form Man­age­ment of Insti­tu­tion­al Funds Act, and the Uni­form Pru­dent Investor Act.

You have a choice of three invest­ment pools: Long-Term Endow­ment, Inter­me­di­ate, Short-Term. Learn more here.

We allo­cate the costs asso­ci­at­ed with invest­ment man­age­ment pro­por­tion­al­ly to the indi­vid­ual Endow­ment and Investors Cir­cle funds that hold those invest­ments. Invest­ment man­age­ment fees, which vary over time depend­ing on changes to the mix of assets, cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent about 1% of assets under management.

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion offers a free and secure online track­ing sys­tem that lets fund­hold­ers view fund activ­i­ty and rec­om­mend grants online 24⁄7, as a ser­vice to our fund­hold­ers. Fund­hold­ers may con­tribute to, review activ­i­ty in, and man­age your fund(s).

Get­ting Start­ed with your Fund­hold­er Portal

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion offers a free and secure online track­ing sys­tem that lets fund­hold­ers view fund activ­i­ty and rec­om­mend grants online 24⁄7 as a ser­vice to our fundholders.

Fundholder Login

If you are not signed up to use Donor View, con­tact the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion (307) 739‑1026 to obtain your con­fi­den­tial user ID and password.

First, login to Donor View to view your fund(s) infor­ma­tion. Select any of the fig­ures shown to obtain a detailed trans­ac­tion record. You can also use Donor View to rec­om­mend grants, print fund state­ments and per­form oth­er functions.

If you have a ques­tion or are hav­ing tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties, con­tact Bron­wen Fitzsi­mons, (307) 739‑1026. We are hap­py to help.