Philanthropists
Anyone can be a philanthropist - let us show you how
It isn't about the size of your donation...it's about creating a strategy to use your assets to meet your charitable goals
New Fund Questions
You can use this form to begin exploring a new donor-designed fund without making a trip to our office - although that's welcome, too!
"I, (your name), hereby donate $________ (or ____%) to the Community Foundation of Grundy County (EIN #36-4299824) via my estate for the purpose of _____________________________."
This is some basic language, but please feel free to edit to meet your goals!
However, the sentence as written above gives us the authority to use your gift for the grantmaking of our choosing in Grundy County, which is fine. But if you want your donation to be used for something in particular, please let us work with you to create a donor-designed fund that will be the receiving fund. This way we at CFGC have a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish - then we'll make it happen!
What is it and how do I go about it? Click here for details!
The CAP® designation is designed to bring advisors and nonprofit gift planners together to serve clients who want to plan not only for their own financial security and that of their heirs, but also to make a difference in the world. CAP® is accepted as the mark of an advisor or gift planner committed to helping those who want to give wisely and well. CAP® designees are committed to professional and ethical best practices and must recertify this commitment annually.
Please click here to download Get to Know This Important Designation brochure which explains how working with a CAP® as either a donor or professional advisor helps you accomplish a legacy plan that embodies your highest aspirations so you can have a great life, leave fulfilled heirs, and have a lasting impact on the causes that matter most to you.
Effective September 1, 2020, CFGC Executive Director Julianne Buck has earned this CAP® designation.
Please click here to read more on the American College of Financial Services website.
- We are a local organization with deep roots in the community.
- Our professional staff has broad expertise regarding community issues and needs.
- We provide highly personalized service tailored to each individual's charitable and financial interest.
- Our funds help people invest in the causes they care about most.
- We accept a wide variety of assets and can facilitate even the most complex forms of giving.
- We partner with professional advisors to create highly effective approaches to charitable giving.
- We offer maximum tax advantage for most gifts under federal law.
- We multiply the impact of gift dollars by pooling them with other gifts and grants.
- We build endowment funds that benefit the community forever and help create personal legacies.
- We are a community leader, convening agencies and coordinating resources to create positive change.
What is a Donor Advised Fund?
A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) is a charitable fund, advised by you and administered by the Community Foundation of Grundy County (CFGC). As advisor, you recommend grants to the not-for-profit causes you care about. We handle the investments and all the paperwork: tax reporting, receipts for your tax-deductible gifts, confirming the organization’s not-for-profit status, and preparing the grant checks. Donor Advised Funds are available for individuals, couples, families, and corporations.
What can I donate?
Contributions of cash, securities, or marketable real estate are the most popular, but other methods can be accepted upon review. Contributions made now can qualify for tax deductions immediately with distributions can be made later. Just remember that all contributions to your fund are irrevocable.
Who can I give to?
Gifts can be to local or national charitable organizations. The CFGC Board of Trustees must approve your recommendations, however we seek to honor your requests unless legally or practically impossible.
Who chooses the fund’s advisors?
You determine who will advise the fund and make grant recommendations – many donors bring the whole family into the discussions. You can also choose the asset mix for your fund – aggressive, moderate, conservative, or low-risk. We mail quarterly reports to you showing contributions, grants, and investment performance for the quarter.
How does a Donor Advised Fund differ from a private foundation?
A Donor Advised Fund is less expensive to establish and maintain than a private foundation. Donor Advised Funds are not subject to excise tax, do not have a minimum annual payout requirement, and do not need to file an annual tax return. In addition, you avoid any potential self-dealing penalties that may occur with a private foundation.
What are the costs?
The foundation support charge on funds stewarded at the Community Foundation of Grundy County is currently 2% annually. We pay fees to the investment firms who manage our funds and the remaining percentage stays in-house to support CFGC’s programs around early childhood care & education, workforce development, land use & protection, people in need, and growth & its impact on our systems.
Can I get public credit for gifts?
Absolutely. Unless you request anonymity, the Community Foundation of Grundy County will include your fund and its grants in our marketing and annual report. We do the work. You get the credit.
Who do I contact?
Call or e-mail us at 815-941-0852 or [email protected]. Our address is 520 W. Illinois Avenue in the historic Coleman Hardware Building in Morris, Illinois.
Donor Advised
- Most flexible;
- Start with contribution now; can grant now or later;
- Can assign children and grandchildren as decision makers after your lifetime;
- Can be “corporate donor advised fund,” too.
Designated
- Created by a donor for the sole benefit of a specific charity;
- Charity automatically receives annual distribution unless instructed otherwise by establishing donor;
- Donor can specify how the charity is to use the annual distribution. If so, supervised by Foundation Grants & Programs Committee to assure donor intent.
Field of Interest
- Established by group of donors to support a particular issue, such as fine arts, historic preservation, education, or people in need;
- Anyone in community can contribute;
- Foundation’s Grants & Programs Committee can use the fund either to fulfill a non-profit grant request or in a strategic manner to address an urgent need;
- Geographic Field of Interest Funds:
- available to groups of citizens in villages to act as their own community foundation;
- interested residents establish a committee to raise and distribute funds for community projects and local non-profits.
Scholarship
- Can be broad or to support a particular school or field of study or population;
- Decisions are made by committee;
- Donor (& family) cannot have majority decision power nor press undue influence upon the selection committee.
Agency Fund
- Established by non-profits who want to build a long-term endowment to forever provide an annual income stream.
During your lifetime
- Cash or check
- deliver or mail to 520 W. Illinois Avenue, Morris, IL 60450
- Online with credit card
- Appreciated securities
- ask your wealth manager to transfer your stock to the CFGC account at Grundy Investments
- DTC 141
- Account #4405-3954
- Kelly Dransfeldt – 815-941-3544
- IRA
- Donors UNDER the age of 70-1/2 will have their donations taxed as income
- Donors OVER the age of 70-1/2 can donate to charity directly from an IRA and that donation will NOT be taxed as income; your IRA administrator has to transfer the funds. Please note that IRA Charitable Rollovers CANNOT be transferred to a Donor Advised Fund.
- ask your wealth manager to transfer your stock to the CFGC account at Grundy Investments
After your lifetime - "planned giving" - click here to learn more!
- Will/estate
- Whether a dollar amount or percentage, you can designate a gift to CFGC with instructions to deposit into a fund that your design now. Design now; fund later.
- Sample Will courtesy of Jim & Carol Baum
- Beneficiaries of qualified accounts
- Insurance
- IRA
- 401k
We encourage everyone to dedicate just 5% of their estate to favorite charities.
And if we can steward that 5% for you here in endowments to serve Grundy County forever, all the better!
If you're stuck on how that might look, please click here to view a sample will taken directly from Jim & Carol Baum's will. You'll see how they've dedicated a percentage of their estate to various funds here plus the purpose of each fund.
Your will doesn't have to be this complex, but you can see how we can help you solve even the most complex giving strategies!
Tracy Gary, author of "Inspired Philanthropy," is a friend of the Foundation and we were thrilled to have her here a few years ago to present to an audience plus spend a intimate evening chatting with and challenging our board.
We encourage you to use Tracy's book to guide you through your journey of discovering to see if, how much, and when to start a charitable giving plan.
You can order her book from Amazon by clicking here. Or, we have purchased a supply and have them here at the office. You are very welcome to stop by and pick up a free copy!
OR...maybe even better...the worksheets from Tracy's book are available for free from her website!
There are tons of resources out there to help you discover, plan, and implement your own charitable giving plan that fits you, your assets, and your lifestyle.
We invite you to explore and hope that it leads you to designing a donor fund of your own here at the Foundation!
With Ron's permission, here's the story of how we solved his shoebox problem:
Ron used to donate gifts of stock to his favorite charities each December. He would sit down each year and look at which stocks to give, then look at the market and decide how many shares to give each charity on which day to equal a dollar amount close to his gift goal, and rarely did that end in even numbers. AND his favorite charities had to have the capacity to accept and sell stock.
And we all know that timing the market is not an easy task!
Instead, Ron learned that he can transfer a block of stock to the Community Foundation of Grundy County, we'd liquidate it and deposit the cash into his Donor Advised Fund. He'd get the charitable deduction, then instruct us where to send grants...in nice, pretty, even dollar amounts. And Ron didn't then have a shoebox full of receipts to take to his accountant each tax time - he just had a single receipt letter from us.
And he's been doing it ever since!
We solved a problem and provided a service. We made the donor happy by streamlining the tasks associated with his year-end giving. We made the brokerage firm happy by streamlining the number of stock trades they had to process. We made the charities happy by sending them a simple grant check rather than a block of stock that they'd then have to sell. We made the accountant happy by eliminating Ron's shoebox of receipts!
We can do this for you, too!
A friend told me this story:
Another friend's mother was ill and was spending weeks at a time in the hospital.
That particular hospital kitchen staff came around patient room halls each afternoon with fresh-baked cookies, cold milk, and hot coffee.
True, the patients often didn't get to partake, but in some ways it wasn't for the patients - it was for their families.
Each afternoon the families shared some fellowship in the hall...a short respite to set aside their worries for a bit and re-charge their spirits over cookies and conversation.
So as the friends were talking, the one said how much she appreciated this service of the hospital and while it's a rather small service, she hopes it never goes away due to budget cuts.
"Endow it," said my friend.
What?
"Find out how much the cookie dough costs, then set up an endowment to forever fund the cookie dough. The hospital won't be able to spend it for anything else, even in the deepest budget cuts."
Brilliant!
What's your cookie dough? What do you hope never goes away? Can we help you endow it so that it always remains...regardless of future decisions and budget cuts?
We know things go away...and often there's a good reason such as lack of participants in a program.
But if money is the reason a program, service, staff, or nonprofit goes away, look for a way to endow it.
Baums have endowed the Honors Night at Morris Community High School. Because that fund is here, the Foundation will always send a grant check to MCHS for this program...long after Baums and current MCHS staff have retired or passed on.
Do you hear how universities have an "endowed chair of _____?" We can do that at local schools, too. If you want to make sure a particular subject is always studied, you can endow it.
What about light bulbs? Your favorite charity cannot function without space, electricity, heat, air conditioning, desks, chairs, phones...the list goes on. If you endow one of these items, that's frees up other donor dollars for programs.
Pretty much anything can be endowed. Think about it, talk with your favorite charity, then call us to make it a reality!
- design a fund...
- that fits your financial capacity...
- to meet your charitable goals...
- to address the issues you care about...
- in a place you care about...
- to make that place better than when you found it...
- all while getting a tax deduction!
Please use this form to inform of us any gifts you plan to make in the future. This is not a contract, simply a method for informing us of your intent to leave a gift to us as part of your estate.
If you have a donor fund with us and want to recommend a grant to a U.S-based charity/nonprofit, please complete this form. Please use one form per charity. Thank you!
"When we plant a tree, we don’t plant it for ourselves but for our children."
--the Reverend Mae "Mother" Wyatt