Geneseo Is For Tomorrow

Ways to Give 

Community Impact Fund

During and after your lifetime you want your charitable giving to accomplish the most for the quality of life in the Geneseo area, and you recognize that needs can change. You establish your Named Fund as a Community Impact Fund during your lifetime or by will. You require only that all grants be in your name, and year after year the entire responsibility for selecting the most appropriate grantees rests with our dedicated GIFT advisory committee. Grants may be made in any area of philanthropy, such as health and human services, educational programs, cultural activities and community development. This all-purpose type of fund is the most flexible for responding to emerging charitable needs.

Field-of-Interest Fund

You want to have a positive impact in a particular field but you do not want to commit your money to a single organization, or you value your community and the diverse charitable activities that make it a wonderful place to live.

You set up you Named Fund with GIFT as a Field-of-Interest Fund, describing this field as broad or narrow as you wish.  Using our experienced staff and volunteers, we can regularly identify appropriate grantees.  If the fund is operating during your lifetime, you will receive periodic reports of the impact of our philanthropy.

With a Field-of-Interest Fund, you can focus your charitable giving on favorite issues. GIFT, acting through its staff and advisory committee, then makes grants to meet current needs in your area of interest.

Designated Fund for One or More Organizations

You have a strong preference for one or more favorite charities or have been supporting a certain charitable organization with annual gifts. You want to ensure that these charities receive support for as long as they provide needed services to Geneseo.

You set up Your Named Fund with GIFT as a Designated Fund and specify the organization(s) that presently operate in your area of interest. GIFT can make distributions from your fund at least annually to the specified beneficiaries. Furthermore, GIFT can monitor the designated grantees to be sure that they are functioning well. If a charity significantly changes its focus, or merges with another or closes its doors, or the purpose it serves becomes obsolete, GIFT is able to adjust its disbursements to make sure that your fund carries out your original intent.

You may also create a Designated Fund through your will, or add to the fund you have already established in GIFT. You can ask GIFT to send the distributions from your fund to your favorite charities, specifying the amounts or percentages to each. Donations in your name are sent yearly to the named charities.

Combination Field-of-Interest and Designated Fund

You may have a number of charitable interests and your list of recipients changes each year, with a few organizations always listed and the rest varying.

You set up your Named Fund with us, and in your will provide a bequest to the fund. You ask us to divide a portion of the fund's distribution each year among your field or fields of interest. Examples include, but are not limited to: handicapped children, aid to the elderly, education, recreation, or any other field. We select organizations that match your field of interest and can make a meaningful difference.

Endowed Donor Advised Fund

You would like the advantages of a charitable fund with GIFT now, but you want to be able to make suggestions from time to time on which charities should be supported. Or you would like to set up a fund in your will, but you want to name certain people as advisers to your fund.

You set up your Named Fund with GIFT as an Endowed Donor Advised Fund. Your contributions to the fund fully qualify for tax deductions in the year made. You, or you and an advisory committee named by you, give GIFT your recommendations on distributions from time to time. You can also set up an advised fund in your will, naming the adviser(s) who will make recommendations on distributions for your Named Fund.

In either case, we check the recommendations against the following standards:

1.  The organization must be approved by the IRS as a legitimate charitable agency.
2.  The purpose of the grant must be charitable.
3.  The organization must be reviewed by GIFT, either individually or from publicly available documents and found eligible for support.

Donor advisers need to recognize that the IRS requires that the final decision about distributions from Donor Advised Funds is in the hands of the Community Foundation Board of Directors. However, advice given on disbursements from your fund will be fully considered in the decision-making process. The GIFT advisory committee and the Community Foundation staff are available to assist with the identification of worthy grant recipients.

Scholarship Fund

You would like your money to be used to set up scholarships in your name or the name of a loved one.

You set up Your Named Fund for scholarships. You can specify the schools the young people are to come from or the ones they attend. The scholarships can be for any level of education you specify, trade school, or college. GIFT will see to it that your wishes are carried out.

Award Fund

Instead of scholarships, you would like your money to be used for a series of awards, recognizing outstanding achievement, merit, or contributions in an area of service. Awards can be very meaningful to the recipients, especially when carefully planned and conducted.

You set up Your Named Fund and ask GIFT to use it to conduct an award program in your name. If you have specific ideas about the nature of the award, you tell us. There are various options for administrative support of the program.

Supporting Organization

As a wealthy individual or the trustee of a large private foundation you are in the position of making a charitable contribution of $1 million or more to the community. You or your foundation would like to continue to participate in the use of these funds but you want the tax and other benefits offered by a Community Foundation.

You and GIFT create a Supporting Organization under the auspices of GIFT. The status of the Supporting Organization as "not a private foundation" allows you to obtain maximum tax advantages along with continued participation in all management decisions. Further, you enjoy such immunity from liability as accorded by state law. The Supporting Organization has the power to hold property, enter into contracts, and accept gifts up to the limitations of its charter and bylaws. You can make additional contributions at any time.

You also have the option of creating a fund in GIFT to carry out your charitable purposes.

Memorial Fund

You would like the memory of a friend or loved one to live on forever.

You set up a fund with GIFT in the name of the individual(s) you wish to honor. You ask others who know that person to contribute to the fund which, depending upon the total amount contributed, may become part of GIFT's Community Impact Fund or dedicated as a Field-of-Interest Fund to carry out your loved one's charitable interests. Either way, their name will be acknowledged to the beneficiaries of the fund, and it becomes a permanent, living memorial that will be meaningful for years.

Organization Endowment

You sit on the Board of Directors of a nonprofit agency which, as a charitable organization committed to provide service for several years, will need a permanent endowment. Your organization can realize its long-term objectives by creating a component fund with GIFT.

The total value of our assets enables us to diversify our investments more readily than agencies with smaller endowments, thereby increasing opportunities for maximizing total return. When an agency's funds are combined with ours for investment purposes, the management fees are reduced. We also provide a buffer between your agency and its endowment, reducing the temptation to tap in to the principal in tough fiscal times.  Placing the endowment with GIFT will relieve your organization of the internal accounting and reporting entailed in managing an endowment. We provide your organization with periodic statements on principal balance and available income. We also prepare and file tax returns on the endowment and obtain an annual audit.

We want your organization's endowment to grow. We see that as strengthening the private charitable sector in our community. Your Organization Endowment will be listed in the GIFT family of funds and the Quad Cities Community Foundation publications such as the Newsletter, Annual Report, Website, and a brochure we publish to market the fund. You can discuss with us the ways GIFT can help your organization market its endowment.

Charitable Giving Fund

You want to make a contribution to benefit a worthwhile service or project in the community, but you don't have the time or resources to assure satisfactory completion. You also wish to join with others who are interested in providing funds for this endeavor. You want the full amount of you gift to be available now.

You create or add to a Charitable Giving Fund from which the principal amount you contribute may be spent to accomplish the fund's purpose. We go to work for you by managing the fund, overseeing disbursements, and, if needed, obtaining qualified professionals to carry the project or service through to conclusion.

You will receive an immediate tax deduction when you make your donation to a GIFT fund and be assured that your funds will be used wisely and as you wish.

Cash

It's the uncomplicated, straightforward way to make a charitable gift. You simply write out a check, and that's it.

Securities

As a result of your financial planning, your balance sheet is longer in securities that in cash, and some of those securities have greatly appreciated over the years. If you were to simply sell them, you would have to pay capital gains tax. If your charitable interests are varied, trying to divide these securities among many different organizations can be an endless nuisance.

Your marketable securities can be transferred to GIFT to create Your Named Fund. In cases where appreciation is a factor, you may discover that you can give more, and at less cost to you, than by giving cash. You get the maximum tax deductions. If the amount is larger than you can use in one year, you can use the surplus as a deduction for as long as five years. The charities that are supported by Your Named Fund can receive cash. Everyone benefits.

Charitable Bequests

You are making decisions on a new will. You have taken care of all the usual details, assigned sentimental possessions, and provided for relatives. You decide you would like to help make Geneseo a better place for your having lived there.

You provide that the remaining assets go to Your Named Trust, significantly reducing the taxes otherwise payable by your estate. The fund continues doing good work in your name permanently, as a living symbol of your caring.

Gifts From an Estate or Trust

You are the executor of trustee under a will. You are directed to allocate a certain amount of money to a charity and you want assistance to carry out the charitable provisions.

You set up a fund in the GIFT in the name of the person who died. We are capable of handling complex bequests to charity. With the approval of the court, if necessary, you arrange to have the charitable portion of the estate paid to the fund. GIFT assumes the burden or carrying out its charitable provisions.

Life Insurance

You have been paying the premiums on life insurance for years.

Now the protection it offered earlier is no longer needed.  The policies have some value and you would like a charity to benefit.

You donate the policies to Your Named Fund. You get an immediate tax deduction, usually in an amount equal to their cash surrender value. Your premium payments may also be tax deductible, and your charitable fund grows along with the value of your policies.

Another option with Life Insurance is that you can name a GIFT fund as your beneficiary thus taking advantage of tax savings for state and federal estate taxes.

Gifts of Real Estate

Like many people, you may have a large percentage of your assets in real estate. Yet the difficulty of donating real estate to charity may have kept you from doing so.

Quad Cities Community Foundation (GIFT's parent organization) manages the receipt and sale of your real estate gift and provides a simple way for you to reap the rewards of your charitable donation. A donation of real estate receives the maximum tax benefits allowed by law. The net proceeds from the sale of your property can be used to begin an endowed fund, a gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust to benefit GIFT and the charities it serves.