Helping Your Clients

The Community Foundation can help you help your clients achieve their philanthropic goals in ways not available through other organizations or strategies. We partner with you. We will work with you as present philanthropic options for your clients’ wealth-management strategies, so they feel well served by you and the resources you bring them. Speaking with your clients about philanthropy can enrich and personalize your relationship with them.

In support of the value of your relationships with your clients, the Community Foundation’s expert staff offers:

  • Deep roots in community and a strong grasp of current conditions
  • Broad knowledge of local philanthropy and grantmaking expertise
  • Experience evaluating and working with nonprofits
  • A comprehensive picture of resources and needs across our region
  • Professional consultation with your clients without fee or obligation

The Community Foundation can work with you to help your clients practice informed and effective charitable giving.

  • We make philanthropy simple and offer a variety of tools and options you won’t find elsewhere
  • We help ensure that your clients enjoy the maximum tax benefits of charitable giving
  • We have over 30 years of experience, a deep knowledge and concern for improving our community and an abiding commitment to hands-on service and guidance—no matter the size of the fund
  • Donors feel confident having their funds managed here. Overseen by our Investment Committee we have access to very high-quality managers and diversified investment vehicles designed to reduce risk during down markets with strong gains in up markets. Learn more about our investment philosophy

A fund with us allows your clients to make the most of their charitable giving under the current tax laws.

  • Funds are easy to open and provide immediate tax benefits
  • We can help your clients with complex donations, such as appreciated stock, or assets that are difficult to sell or divide, like real estate
  • We have special funds, such as Designated Funds, that your clients can use to make charitable rollovers of their mandatory IRA distributions
  • Your clients can bunch their donations by making one large donation to their Donor Advised Funds, taking the tax benefits this year, then recommending grants to charities over the next several years or more
  • Learn more about the benefits of our charitable funds
  • Learn more about how to open a fund

How We Can Help Your Clients

The following client scenarios might be a good fit to refer to the Community Foundation:

A fund at the Community Foundation provides more tax benefits and fewer administrative and regulatory burdens than a private foundation.

Our staff handles all administrative work and grantmaking. Your clients can focus on recommending grants to their favorite charities. If they choose, their grants can be anonymous. Learn more about the differences between donor-advised funds and private foundations: Download a comparison chart

Your clients with private foundations can take advantage of our private foundation services. We can help them create a parallel fund to their foundation or convert a foundation to a fund at the Community Foundation. Read more about some of our fundholders who have transitioned a foundation to a Community Foundation fund: The Wallace Family, the Ellsworth Family, and The Bunbury Fund.

Donor-advised funds offer a range of advantages over a foundation. Consider the following differences between philanthropic giving by way of a donor-advised fund as opposed to setting up a private foundation:
• With a donor advised fund, more money will go to charity and your client will have less paperwork and lower overhead costs
• Donor advised funds have higher tax deduction limits for your client’s charitable giving, more granting options and can be opened immediately
• Your client will have the benefit of our local, charitable giving expertise
• Grants made from our charitable funds can be anonymous
• Learn more about our private foundation services
• Compare the differences between donor-advised funds and private foundations: Download a comparison chart

Do you have clients who are preparing to sell their businesses? Consider contacting us before the sale to help minimize their taxes.
The sale of a business may trigger a significant tax event. Donating a portion of that business to the Community Foundation can help your client lower their capital gains taxes.

We often work with estate planning attorneys because they know their clients can leave a legacy through the Community Foundation. Please see this information legacy giving. Learn more about Legacy Planning.

Gifts of highly appreciated securities are easy to transfer to our charitable funds, and those gifts provide your clients with important tax benefits. When your clients donate stock, they do not owe capital gains taxes for those shares. For clients who itemize deductions, the full fair market value is deductible as a charitable contribution up to 30 percent of AGI. Deduction amounts over that limit can be carried forward for five years.

Your clients can use their IRAs and other qualified retirement plans for charitable planning. This can be especially beneficial for clients age 70 ½ and over. They can make a qualified charitable distribution of up to $100,000 from their IRA to certain types of charitable funds at the Community Foundation. For clients who have required minimum distributions, that charitable rollover can count toward their RMDs. Clients can also name the Community Foundation as a beneficiary of their IRA as part of their estate planning. Traditional IRAs are often the most taxed asset to give to heirs. If your clients are charitable, traditional IRAs are likely better deployed as a charitable bequest, if other assets, such as appreciated stock, are available to leave to children and other heirs.

For more information or support, please contact:

Marcia Shackelford
Chief Philanthropy Officer
Email Marcia Shackelford

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