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Types of Funds

Our Community Foundation offers donors a range of options for establishing their funds.

Donor-advised Funds provide maximum flexibility and convenience by enabling donors to create a fund and then indicate their preference as to the charitable beneficiaries each year.  While IRS regulations require that the final decision must rest with WCCF’s Board of Trustees, the donor’s preference is fully considered in making grants from these funds.  Donor-advised funds are an attractive alternative to private family foundations in terms of legal, tax and other administrative requirements.  Many families teach philanthropy to their children and grandchildren through a donor-advised family fund.

Individuals, families, and businesses may be particularly interested in a Donor-Advised Fund when:

• They wish to create a perpetual named fund to honor or memorialize an individual, family or business.
  
• They have thought about creating a family or business "foundation," but want to be part of a publicly-supported charity, not a private foundation, and want to avoid the costs, regulations, minimum distribution rules, excise taxes, and administrative costs of private foundations.
  
• They want to be able to vary the charities they support as years go by.
• They want to involve succeeding generations of the family or business in the philanthropic process.They want to make a large charitable contribution before the end of the tax year, but need time to explore or clarify their philanthropic interests or the best ways to accomplish them (donor-advised funds have no requirements as to the timing of distributions from the fund).
  

“Our family enjoys getting together once a year and picking a worthwhile charity to support.  We are teaching our children and grandchildren about giving back in their community.”

• They want to make contributions to a charitable holding account and later transfer those contributions to other funds held by WCCF or directly to other charities.
  
• They want to consider requests for funding made to WCCF in their particular areas of interest and to benefit from the counsel of WCCF staff regarding current charitable needs and programs.

Designated Funds ensure that long-term annual support will be provided to one or more favorite charities chosen by the donor.

Field-of-interest Funds support a broad area of concern to donors, such as health and human services, education, arts and culture, or the environment.  WCCF then makes grants to the most appropriate programs or organizations within the area of interest specified by the donor.

Agency Funds or Nonprofit Endowment Funds provide a vehicle for nonprofit organizations to place their funds within the community foundation.  These funds are pooled with a larger investment pool than the nonprofit would have access to on its own.   Earnings are

available as annual income for the agency or nonprofit.  Also, the community foundation can provide limited technical assistance to the nonprofit agency in terms of planning and making a case for an endowment campaign and gift planning with donors.

Geographic Area Funds are unrestricted funds designated to benefit a particular town or county in Western Colorado. 

Scholarship Funds may be established in honor of a family member or other loved one to provide educational scholarships to deserving students.

Temporary Funds are non-endowed funds for donors who need a nonprofit mechanism to facilitate their charitable giving.  Donors may want to gift a piece of real estate and/or sell appreciated stock and get a charitable deduction in one year but disburse grants over a number of subsequent years.  A donor might want to make a major gift anonymously through the community foundation.  Or, a donor might use the community foundation as a partner in a challenge grant to a local nonprofit, challenging them to raise a certain amount before the donor’s grant is made.

Unrestricted Funds enable the community foundation to meet changing needs and opportunities in our community, now and in the future. 

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