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Hello from THE peninsula community foundation!Hello from the community foundation!
As you gear up for the holidays and build your year-end checklist, we are here for all of your charitable giving “to do’s.” Whether you’ve been a fund holder at the community foundation for years, or you’ve just established a fund or are considering doing so, our team can help. In this issue, we're focusing on three topics to help enrich your experience with charitable giving. |
Bringing happiness to children on the Peninsula. Every year the Foundation encourages our friends and our families to contribute to the Peninsula Children’s Holiday Fund. Our Children’s Fund is more than just a charitable initiative; it's a beacon of unity that allows families to rally around the magic of giving. This program of sharing has been a tradition on the Peninsula since the 1930s and we are honored to be a part of its continuation. Join us in spreading holiday cheer and creating lasting memories for families in need.
Structure helps family philanthropy thrive. Families don't always get along perfectly, which is no surprise! But there's no need for minor family disagreements to derail well-intentioned charitable giving that allows a family to rally around favorite causes. Remember that the community foundation can serve as a sounding board, advisor, and facilitator, whether your family organizes its giving through a donor-advised fund, private foundation, or a combination of both.
Beyond the donor-advised fund. Many of you have established a donor-advised fund with the community foundation or have considered doing so. Donor-advised funds are terrific vehicles and there are good reasons for their popularity. What you might not know, though, is that your donor-advised fund can serve as an important hub for all of your philanthropy and pave the way for you to expand your giving strategies into issue-specific giving, family giving, and legacy giving. Learn how the community foundation can serve as your comprehensive philanthropic partner.
Wishing you all the best for the holidays!
Michael Monteith, CEO
Peninsula Community Foundation of Virginia
Structure helps family philanthropy thrive. Families don't always get along perfectly, which is no surprise! But there's no need for minor family disagreements to derail well-intentioned charitable giving that allows a family to rally around favorite causes. Remember that the community foundation can serve as a sounding board, advisor, and facilitator, whether your family organizes its giving through a donor-advised fund, private foundation, or a combination of both.
Beyond the donor-advised fund. Many of you have established a donor-advised fund with the community foundation or have considered doing so. Donor-advised funds are terrific vehicles and there are good reasons for their popularity. What you might not know, though, is that your donor-advised fund can serve as an important hub for all of your philanthropy and pave the way for you to expand your giving strategies into issue-specific giving, family giving, and legacy giving. Learn how the community foundation can serve as your comprehensive philanthropic partner.
Wishing you all the best for the holidays!
Michael Monteith, CEO
Peninsula Community Foundation of Virginia
making magic across the virginia peninsulaWith the festive season here, the Peninsula Community Foundation of Virginia is lighting up the lives of children on the Peninsula through its heartwarming initiative—the Children's Holiday Fund. More than just a celebration, this program embodies the spirit of giving, ensuring that every child experiences the joy and magic of Christmas.
The Children's Holiday Fund is a testament to the foundation's commitment to community well-being. Through this program, we aim to make the holiday season a time of delight for children and families facing economic challenges. By offering support in the form of gifts, meals, and essential resources, the foundation endeavors to create lasting memories and spread the warmth of the season. The foundation collaborates with various local organizations, non-profits, and partners to identify families in need. The Children's Holiday |
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Fund then channels donations, grants, and resources to ensure that these families can celebrate the holidays with dignity and joy. From providing gift cards for holiday shopping to delivering festive meals and presents, the program covers a spectrum of needs, making a meaningful impact on the community.
Visit the Children's Holiday Fund webpage and discover touching stories from families who've experienced the magic of this program firsthand. These narratives highlight the genuine impact of the community's support, demonstrating how the Children's Holiday Fund goes beyond material gifts, providing hope, comfort, and a sense of belonging during the festive season.
Visit the Children's Holiday Fund webpage and discover touching stories from families who've experienced the magic of this program firsthand. These narratives highlight the genuine impact of the community's support, demonstrating how the Children's Holiday Fund goes beyond material gifts, providing hope, comfort, and a sense of belonging during the festive season.
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Family philanthropy: A process relieves the pressureHelping families create a meaningful structure for their philanthropy has long been a hallmark service of our community foundation. That structure and the resulting discipline are increasingly important as both wealth and charitable giving more frequently span multiple generations. Indeed, spontaneous and unstructured conversations around wealth and philanthropy can be a source of family discord.
By being part of the discussion–whether formally or informally, at the table or behind the scenes–our team at the community foundation can help families resolve issues and smooth out the edges around common intra-family challenges, including communication, decision-making, and charitable giving. |
Here are a few of the ways the team at the community foundation can help:
- Serving as a coach to foster thoughtful, intentional, and inclusive family conversations, even if the community foundation team member is serving simply in an “ice-breaker” role.
- Offering guidance from the position of a facilitator to assure that all voices are heard, particularly as views across generations can differ.
- Helping a family structure a series of discussions that employ a phased-in or “dimmer-switch” approach, beginning with values-centered discussions to identify common ground and progressing to systematic funding and allocation conversations and decisions.
- Some families enjoy organizing their charitable giving through both a private foundation and a donor-advised fund at the community foundation. The team at the community foundation can serve as a sounding board for grant making from both vehicles and also work with a family’s tax advisors to help optimize the role and use of each vehicle.
- Many families have found that a donor-advised fund at the community foundation meets all of their charitable giving needs, and they appreciate the community foundation taking on the administrative burden associated with tax filings and administration. In some cases, a family decides to close their private foundation altogether and transfer the assets to a donor-advised fund here at the community foundation.
- Some families leverage our foundation for the full suite of its charitable giving services, often using a donor-advised fund in much the same way they’d use a private family foundation, only with increased privacy and no need to create a separate legal entity, thanks to the community foundation’s umbrella 501(c)(3) status.
Your donor-advised fund: Think “hub,” not “autopilot”Perhaps you established a donor-advised fund at the community foundation years ago, or you set up a donor-advised fund more recently. Or maybe you are considering establishing a donor-advised fund at the community foundation this year to help you keep your giving more organized and involve your children and grandchildren in your philanthropic priorities.
Whatever the case may be in your situation, it’s a great idea to consider a few best practices for ensuring that your donor-advised fund is making the biggest difference possible for the causes you care about. Life gets busy, the months fly by, and it's tempting to put your donor-advised fund on autopilot. But that would be a missed opportunity. |
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By now, you likely know that a donor-advised fund offers the convenience of a one-stop-shop: You make tax-deductible contributions of cash (or, ideally, appreciated stock) to the fund, and then recommend grants to your favorite charities. Make sure you’re leveraging your donor-advised fund to execute the full range of your charitable giving each year. You’ll find it so much easier to keep track over time of where you’re giving, and how much.
As the hub of your charitable giving, the Peninsula Community Foundation certainly makes it easy for you to use your donor-advised fund for your annual giving to charities. But that’s not all. As you work closely with the community foundation, you’re likely to discover even more ways our team can support your philanthropic activities:
As the hub of your charitable giving, the Peninsula Community Foundation certainly makes it easy for you to use your donor-advised fund for your annual giving to charities. But that’s not all. As you work closely with the community foundation, you’re likely to discover even more ways our team can support your philanthropic activities:
- We can help you establish a designated or field-of-interest fund to complement your donor-advised fund. A designated fund allows you to support a specific charity over the long term, while a field-of-interest fund focuses your support on a particular area of community need by leveraging the community foundation’s expertise. If you are over the age of 70½ and you own one or more IRAs, your designated fund or field-of-interest fund can receive Qualified Charitable Distributions up to $100,000 per year per spouse, bypassing your taxable income.
- We can work with you and your attorney to help you establish a bequest in your estate plan to support your favorite causes beyond your lifetime. Many fund holders at the community foundation name their donor-advised funds, field-of-interest funds, designated funds, or even the community foundation itself, as beneficiaries in their wills and trusts, and especially as beneficiaries of IRAs and other qualified plans because doing so delivers significant tax benefits. What’s more, the community foundation offers opportunities for our legacy donors to get together and learn from each other as a group. If you’re not involved as a legacy donor already, please reach out and we’ll fill you in!
- We can help you and your family learn more about your favorite nonprofit organizations and the issues they are addressing so that you can become more informed and effective philanthropists in our community. The community foundation team’s unparalleled, deep knowledge of local issues and organizations is a real advantage for you and your family. When you better understand the needs of the community and how your favorite nonprofits are addressing those needs, you’ll be better equipped to structure your giving so that it makes a difference in measurable ways. You’ll enjoy your charitable giving a lot more, too.
This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.
For more information about establishing a fund, please [email protected]/757.327.0862
