Help Your Community Foundation Help You

A philanthropic consultantsomeone who can help you start discussing charitable giving with your clientsis waiting to help you.

As you meet the needs of your client, your consultant can help with the specialized issues that surround charitable giving techniques. Best of all, the consulting service is free. But you have to make the first move by contacting the development staff at your local community foundation

What are community foundations?

Community foundations are public charities that manage gifts from various donors for any type of charitable purpose. Typically, a board of directors that consists of community leaders manages these foundations. Foundation employees and volunteers help donors design charitable funds tailored to their values, interests and objectives.

The foundation collects charitable funds and makes grants to charities based on the donors wishes. This enables the donor to make a tax-deductible contribution, exert influence over how the funds are used, and create a legacy that benefits the community without bearing the administrative burden and complexity of other charitable giving options.

Community foundations differ from other charities in important ways. First, they employ trained development staff to provide personalized consulting services. And because they do not provide charitable services themselves, they can provide a broad overview of different giving opportunities.

Additionally, they provide community expertise and leadership, and can identify charities that match a donors objectives. Finally, many also facilitate planned giving arrangements such as donor-advised funds, charitable gift annuities and charitable trust administration.

Why work together? Developing plans that take your clients financial and charitable needs into account is a constant challenge. Specialized marketing and technical expertise is needed to map out the opportunities and options available. While community foundations do not pay financial professionals, they certainly offer the opportunity to advance their businesses.

Wealth replacement trusts. Donors typically have a stronger interest in giving to family members than to charity. So, charitable gifts usually supplementrather than reducefamily giving and estate planning. Trust-owned life insurance often is used as a funding vehicle to replace the wealth for the family.

These wealth replacement trusts are designed to maximize transfers to family members. Income tax deductions or a charitable gift annuity may help finance the gifts of premiums into the trust.

Charitable giving with life insurance. Life insurance and annuity products may make giving more convenient, flexible and significant. While a community foundation provides giving options, the financial professional can augment those options with financial products.

Access to new prospects. Access to new prospects may be obtained through networking or seminars. By bringing the work of a charity with which you are associated to the attention of the community, you may be able to secure new resources for the charity or connect it to other like-minded organizations.