A community foundation is a nonprofit, publicly supported, nonsectarian philanthropic institution with a long-term goal of building permanent funds established by many clients to carry out their charitable interests in perpetuity.

Here is how it works: A client makes a gift to the community foundation. The money flows into a separate fund, with a name and a purpose, created by the client. The community foundation invests and administers the fund on the client's behalf. Every year a portion of the earnings from the fund is used to make grants to charitable organizations designated by the client. All client funds are pooled for investment purposes to gain cost efficiencies and competitive returns yet accounted for separately. Over time, investment proceeds increase the value of each fund and the cumulative impact of its grants. 

An endowment is a permanent investment. It is a commitment to hold all contributions, known as principal or corpus, intact and spend only a portion of the investment earnings. Since only a portion of the earnings is spent, the fund will grow forever. Over time, investment proceeds increase the value of the fund and the cumulative impact of its distributions.

This hypothetical illustration is not a projection or prediction of future investment results.

A community foundation makes the charitable giving process simple and the work of investing meaningful. One of the distinct advantages of working with a community foundation is flexibility. Community foundations provide you with a wide range of cost-effective options to make a measurable difference. You can self-direct your contributions to specific causes, invest in broader areas of interest, or provide unrestricted gifts to support emerging opportunities.

A community foundation can help you receive the greatest tax benefit from gifts of cash, stock, retirement assets, and more. You can create or add to your fund whenever it makes the most sense for you financially and qualify for tax benefits immediately. The community foundation maintains your fund's tax records and provides all the information you need at tax time.

The fund accounting, investing, granting, and record keeping procedures are handled by the community foundation.

All of the Foundation's assets are pooled for investment management purposes, minimizing costs and achieving competitive returns. The pooled asset concept gives a small client the same professional investment management as a large client, and it creates an economy of scale that ensures more funds support your charitable interests.

Both are necessary to build stronger, more vibrant communities. 

Most standard nonprofit organizations have a specific mission to address an immediate opportunity within a community. By contrast, a community foundation is created to manage endowment which supports the long-term opportunities within a community. Its mission reflects its ability to make distributions to a broad range of charitable opportunities within the communities it serves. 

You have two great options for supporting your favorite charity: a donor-advised fund or a designated fund. A donor-advised fund gives you the opportunity to participate in granting, at any time, by recommending distributions to the nonprofit organizations you choose to support. It is a simple, highly personal and effective way to give. A designated fund provides a source of annual income for a specific nonprofit organization(s) you name as beneficiary(s) in your fund agreement. For both types of funds, the Foundation handles the investment management and administration.

By having your charitable wishes outlined in a fund agreement, we are ready to immediately begin fulfilling your vision when the fund is established. Because our role as stewards of your charitable wishes is our priority, the fund agreement is our contract with you, and we are committed to following your intent forever.

A fund may be established with as little as $25,000 for a designated, donor-advised, field of interest, and unrestricted fund or $100,000 for an agency fund. If you wish to build a fund incrementally, you may start a grow-a-fund with a $5,000 contribution and a commitment to build the fund to its mature value, within five years, at which time it may begin to make distributions. There are no costs to establish a fund with us.

We accept many types of gifts as long as they are marketable and not encumbered by a liability. Gifts include cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, retirement assets, and planned gifts, to name a few. Because the Foundation is a public charity, contributions qualify for the maximum benefits allowed by law.

A QCD may be made from your traditional IRA directly to your fund with Lakeshore Community Foundation only if your fund is structured as a designated fund, field of interest fund, or unrestricted fund.  Current law does not allow a donor-advised fund to accept a QCD during your lifetime. However, upon your passing, your IRA assets can be deposited into a donor-advised fund. From there, the assets can be distributed to qualified charitable organizations per the recommendation of your successor advisor(s).

To take advantage of a QCD, you may not maintain any advisory capacity over your fund once it is established, which means you may not add or remove selected charities or change the distribution plan.

All endowed funds administered by the Foundation are pooled for investment purposes and invested, in a prudent mix of stocks and bonds, in accordance with the Foundation's Investment Policy.

An endowed fund typically generates an annual spendable amount determined by our Spending Policy. The spendable amount represents the money available annually for granting from your endowed fund. It is calculated by averaging your fund's total market value over the past 12 quarters. If your fund has not been invested with us for that duration, the fund's average market value will be based on the number of quarters it has been invested with us. Consequently, the contributions to your fund and all future income from it serve as a permanent source of support for your charitable wishes.

Our role is to help you create funds that carry out your charitable goals, whether it is in Sheboygan County, Manitowoc County, or elsewhere. Therefore, grants can be made to qualified charitable organizations anywhere throughout the United States.

The Foundation's fees are two-fold: administrative fees and investment management fees. The fees are outlined in our fee schedule.

You can recommend a grant to any organization that falls within the broad philanthropic mission of the Foundation and is qualified as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, which includes most faith based programs and government entities. The Foundation will ensure that organizations recommended for a grant meet this requirement.

You can name unlimited successor advisors to your donor-advised fund. If you do not name a successor advisor, or after the successor advisor's death, the Foundation's Board of Directors will continue to distribute the funds in accordance with your wishes.

We offer a more highly personalized giving and granting experience through knowledge of the philanthropic sector in our communities. Our staff works with individuals, families, and businesses to bring their charitable goals to life and ensures their wishes are honored, even after they are gone.

Establishing a customized charitable fund at Lakeshore Community foundation is easy and considerably less expensive to administer than a private foundation. We handle all administrative services, including filing annual tax returns, annual audits, performing due diligence on grants, and all details associated with processing and tracking grants. There is no cost to establish a fund with us. Since you name your fund and determine the causes it serves, you enjoy the individuality of a private foundation but gain the cost efficiencies and tax benefits of a public charity.

If you already manage a private foundation, by transferring it to a fund with Lakeshore Community Foundation, you can preserve its identity and original purpose while the Foundation assumes administrative responsibilities, tax reporting and annual audits.