Good Friday this year fell on the 3rd Friday of the month, which happens to be Julie Buck’s regular monthly guest slot on WCSJ 103.1 FM. Since it was Good Friday, she focused on how the Community Foundation of Grundy County can help donors who want to use their charitable dollars to support their church and faith in ways that are deeper or more permanent then what they do now.
Below is the transcript of the radio program. You can also listen to it on WCSJ’s website.
“Julie Buck with the Community Foundation of Grundy County stopped by our studios on Good Friday to provide listeners with some details on the about the variety of ways the Community Foundation can be of service to those wishing to donate funds to their church or faith.
She started by explaining their unrestricted grants and donor advised funds.
“The Community Foundation of Grundy County can be of service to those who want to use their charitable planning to benefit their church and their faith. The Foundation’s unrestricted grant budget has some limits. We do not give grants to churches for things that are for the members of the church. We don’t fund the organ, hymnals and bibles, and things like that. Over the years, we have given grants out of our unrestricted budgets to a handful of churches around Grundy County for things such as stoves for their kitchen because in that kitchen is where they cook food for PADS or for St. Vincent’s table. I think more of a better fit would be the types of donor funds that we hold where a donor can set them up and it can benefit the members of their church. You as a donor can set up a donor advised fund with a lump sum of an asset then, once a year, grant to check out to the church, or twice a year, monthly, whatever the case may be.”
Buck continued with more options including a Field of Interest and Scholarship funds.
“With a field of interest fund, a group of people could come together and pool their money and then they decide where that grant money goes. We also have scholarship funds. Someone could set up a scholarship for someone to go to seminary or a particular college or something like that but it can’t be limited to only members of the church. It could benefit anyone who wants to study to be a pastor within the Presbyterian Church or the Baptist Church or the Catholic Church, but open to applicants from the town of Morris or the County of Grundy, whatever the donor chooses. As a scholarship fund, the donor would not know the name of the applicant during the application process, we whitewash all of those so that you can’t pick and choose your favorites to receive those scholarships It has to be fair and equal as far as meeting the criteria that you set out.”
With more options including farm properties and IRAs, she said there’s multiple options to suit what matters most to donors in their charitable planning.
“We don’t want tax efficiency to be the only reason that somebody uses the Community Foundation, but sometimes it’s an entry point for teaching people how they could be charitable and yet save on their taxes at the same time. We can accept gifts of stock and farmland. The Peg Davis Farm is a good example of that. A farm family could donate ‘x’ number of farmland acres to the Community Foundation. We will contract with a farmer, and every year after, our net half of the farm income would be available to grant to the charity that donor set up within the fund. We can accept gifts from QCDs (qualified charitable distributions) from IRAs. There are a number of people who have been so steadfast in growing their IRA that by the time they get to be 70-1/2 and they don’t necessarily need all the income off of their RMD. If you’re age 70-1/2 or older you can instead direct that to a charity. Anybody listening can send that QCD directly to their church because churches are a 501c3s.”
For more details call 941-0852 or go online to: cfgrundycounty.com.”
In future months, you can listen to Julie live on the 3rd Friday (and Devan on the 4th Tuesday) on “People Are Talking” with Kevin Schramm at 9:10 am – whether on the radio at 103.1 FM or NOW streaming at https://radio.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/WCSJFM
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