CREATE A FUND
As a public charity, the Black Hills Area Community Foundation offers donors the maximum charitable tax deduction permitted by law. It may be advantageous for you to make a current gift based on this year’s tax situation, and to determine grants from your fund in future years.
Opening a fund at the Foundation is quick and easy. You can work with your financial advisor to set it up for you, or you may refer to us directly and our knowledgable staff will assist you in establishing a fund. Our staff is here to help meet your objectives. The Black Hills Area Community Foundation is able to keep it just as simple to set up a fund for the future – as part of your estate plan, for example.
Below are the simple steps to establishing a fund. Black Hills Area Community Foundation staff is happy to help with any questions or issues that arise during the process.
- Identify your charitable purpose(s) or intent(s). This can range from highly specific – for example, an alma mater, church, or synagogue – to general in scope.
- Select the type of fund that best fulfills that purpose or intent. See below for types of funds that might be appealing to you.
- Complete a simple fund agreement to make your intentions clear. Depending on the type of fund being established, you should designate current fund advisors (such as yourself) and successor advisors (your children or grandchildren).
- Name the fund. Funds can be named after the donor, his or her family, a cause, or something else entirely. Donors can also choose to remain anonymous.
- Activate the fund by making an establishing gift.
The Black Hills Area Community Foundation works with advisors to help shape the impact of their clients’ charitable dollars and to select the degree of involvement, if any, their client wants to have with their charitable fund. Virtually any type of charitable giving you might want to do can be accommodated within these options.
Donor Advised Funds: By establishing a donor advised fund, you can have ongoing involvement in the use of your gift. You and/or your Financial Advisor work with our professional staff, identifying ways to use the donor advised fund to address the issues and needs your client cares about most. Donor recommendations are submitted to our Board for approval; then the Foundation distributes grants on your clients’ behalf.
Scholarship Funds: Donors can invest in the community’s future and show students they care, all with the guidance and personal services of the Foundation staff. Donors determine the criteria students must meet to receive a scholarship.
Designated Funds: A simple way to ensure specific agencies can count on you support forever; designated funds provide ongoing funding for one or more particular nonprofit agencies.
Field of Interest Funds: These funds allow you to address ever-changing community needs, including future needs that cannot be anticipated at the time a gift is made. You can target your Field of Interest Fund to address needs in a specific area of community life or a specific region, or you can leave flexibility for Black Hills Area Community Foundation program experts to respond to the community’s most pressing needs, today and tomorrow.
