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Philanthropy: From the Greek, meaning "love
of mankind"
You may not think so, but you are already a
philanthropist. Every time you drop a dollar into the collection
plate, donate used clothing or volunteer some of your time
to a caring organization, you are practicing philanthropy.
The Warren County Foundation is a true partner
in philanthropy. We can assist you in establishing a charitable
fund and in managing your charitable dollars to achieve maximum
positive impact. And, as a donor, you can be as involved as
you'd like to be in grantmaking decisions.
Our Charitable Checking
Program allows you to make a gift of cash or, perhaps, appreciated
stock, and to then direct the distribution of those funds
on a timetable of your choice to the charities of your choice.
A Donor Advised Fund acts
like your very own private foundation, but without the administrative
and legal red tape required to establish your own foundation.
Typically, these funds are named funds-you can name the fund
after yourself, a family member or in honor or memory of a
loved one.
You can also establish or contribute to a Field
of Interest Fund, a fund that addresses the needs of a
particular area of interest or concern, areas such as children's
services, the environment or mental health, to name just a
few. Or you could be interested in providing for a particular
community within Warren County. In that case you could establish
or contribute to a Community Fund.
And, if you prefer to leave the decisions to
us, you may choose to contribute to our Unrestricted
Endowment Fund, from which we provide grants in response
to specific requests of Warren County non-profit organizations.
Our staff, our Grants Committee and our network of professional
contacts throughout the county work hard to be informed of
community needs, and you can be sure every grant request the
Foundation receives is carefully reviewed and evaluated before
grant decisions are made.
So, whether you desire lots of involvement,
some involvement or no involvement at all in the grantmaking
process, the Warren County Foundation can help you meet your
giving goals.
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Here's how it works:
- Establish a Charitable Checking account by
making a tax-deductible contribution of cash or, if your
prefer, securities. You may add to your account at any time.
- When you would like a charitable check to
be drawn from your account, simply fill out a short form
that we provide. Before your gift is sent, Foundation staff
will verify that your chosen charity is properly classified
as a tax-exempt organization by the IRS. This provides an
extra safeguard for your benefit by ensuring that your contributions
achieve your desired results.
- A check is then sent from the foundation
to the charity along with a letter indicating that you are
the source of the gift. Or, if you prefer, the check can
be sent to you so that you can deliver it personally. Or,
if you choose, your check can be sent in complete anonymity,
which preserves your privacy.
It's easy, it's efficient and it's confidential.
To download a Charitable Checking application, click here.
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A Donor Advised Fund at the Warren County Foundation
is like creating your own private foundation-but without the
administrative complications and expense. It is intended for
donors with a longer view--those who wish to see their charitable
dollars grow and benefit the community far into the future.
Both individuals and corporations can establish and maintain
Donor Advised Funds at the Warren County Foundation.
Some donors know exactly which non-profits they
plan to help. But if you have a general idea, we're here to
help. The foundation staff can answer questions, provide information
and research areas of interest to help you determine the organizations
best able to manage your contribution-and those who may need
it the most.
Here's how it works:
- You make an irrevocable gift of cash, securities
or real property to the foundation.
- A Donor Advised Fund is then created in the
name of your choice (your name, the name of a family member
or someone else). Assets are invested in our professionally
managed and monitored endowment pool. You fund is combined
with other funds for better security, higher performance
and lower investment costs. Every quarter you will receive
a fund activity report in the mail. (Of course, you may
also contact the foundation office at any time for your
fund balance.)
- You can make a grant recommendation as soon
as your fund is established. To make a grant recommendation,
you simply complete a form which we provide you. You can
send the form to us, or even fax it to us. On the form,
you specify the name of the non-profit recipient, the dollar
amount and the purpose for which the grant is to be used.
- Upon receipt of your recommendation, the
foundation confirms the recipient organization's IRS tax-exempt
status and any other appropriate criteria, and the grant
is submitted to the foundation's Board of Trustees for consideration
at its next meeting.
- Once the grant is approved by the foundation's
Board, the grant check is mailed to the charity by the foundation
with a letter indicating the fund from which the grant money
was drawn. The grant check will be mailed to the recipient
organization within a week of approval.
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During and after your lifetime you
want your charitable giving to accomplish the most for the
county's quality of life, and you recognize that needs can
change. Further, you believe that a group of living men and
women will always be better able to assess current needs than
any written document from the past, regardless of how thoughtful.
You can establish a named
fund as an unrestricted fund during your lifetime or by will.
All grants made from your fund can be in your name-or the
fund's name-year after year. The responsibility for selecting
the most appropriate grantees rests with the foundation's
dedicated Grants Committee and Board of Trustees. An Unrestricted
Fund such as this provides the most flexible way for
the Foundation to respond to changing community needs.
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If you have a special area of interest-historical
preservation, the environment, children's services, the elderly,
to name a few-you may focus your giving by setting up a Field
of Interest Fund. In this program, the foundation makes grants
from your fund to meet current needs in the specified field.
If you are the type of donor who appreciates
that the foundation will be here in the future to implement
the spirit of your gift, regardless of what changes may occur
in the world around us, then a Field of Interest Fund may
be just right for you.
Pick the cause that's closest to your heart,
and the foundation will ensure that even if specific needs
change over time, your gift will continue to go to those issues
that mean the most to you.
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While some people may have a general
cause that's close to their hearts, you may particularly value
the work of a specific charity above all others. With a Designated
Fund at the Warren County Foundation, you can endow that charity
and that charity alone (or you can specify multiple charities).
If your designated charity changes its mission
or type of services, or if it ceases operations, the foundation
will direct your grantmaking to an organization comparable
to your original designee. Your philanthropic legacy will
continue to do the work you intended.
With a Designated Fund, not only do you support
the organizations of your choice, you also ensure that your
gift will remain relevant over time.
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A Scholarship Fund at the Warren
County Foundation can provide general support for higher education,
or it can be more focused. You can specify the neighborhood
or school from which eligible students will be selected, or
you can have your funds go to students at a particular college
or university.
Your gift can have a significant impact on the
life of every student who receives funds from your fund. And
because of this, scholarship funds can be extremely rewarding
for those who wish to have a tangible sense of the difference
made by their charitable giving.
Because of the personal nature of scholarships,
the process of establishing these funds can be more complex
than other funds at the foundation. Yet careful attention
to detail in setting up your scholarship fund will help to
guarantee its success. Some things that we will help you work
out as you create your scholarship
fund are: How will the scholars be selected? Will there be
a selection committee? Who will participate? Will the scholarship
be a one-time award, or can it be renewed? If it is renewable,
will there be requirements for the scholar to remain eligible
for the scholarship beyond the first year?
The foundation will be pleased to help you navigate
this process with ease.
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One reason that giving through the Warren
County Foundation is so easy is that we can accept a wide
range of assets. These include:
Appreciated stock is a great way
to give, and there are distinct additional tax advantages.
When you donate appreciated stock to the foundation, you receive
the maximum allowable tax deduction for the total value of
the stock. There are no capital gains taxes to be paid on
the appreciated portion of the gift. Giving appreciated stock
makes the value of your gift greater than its actual cost
to you. That's a very nice way to do charitable business.
You may have been paying premiums
on life insurance for years, and you've come to realize that
the protection the insurance offered earlier is no longer
needed. The policies have some value, and you'd like charity
to benefit. You can donate the policies to your named fund.
You get an immediate tax deduction now, usually in the amount
equal to the policy's cash surrender value.
You may be in your senior years
with quite an accumulation of assets. You don't exactly feel
wealthy, but you might feel comfortable. You would appreciate
a little extra assured income for you and your spouse for
the rest of your lives, and you would like charity to benefit
after your lifetimes.
The Warren County Foundation can assist you in establishing
a Remainder Trust, called an Annuity Trust. With such a trust,
you determine the amount of income you'd like each year. In
this scenario, you receive a sizable tax deduction (which
may reduce your income taxes in more than one year), and you
and your spouse receive an income for life. Depending on the
type of fund you choose, the amount you receive may be fixed
or based on a percentage of the assets.
If you would like more information on how
these-or other special trusts--may benefit you and/or your
spouse and family, just give us a call at the Foundation,
and we'll be happy to fill in more of the details.
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Transfer your Private Foundation into ours. If you
are a Trustee of a private foundation, you know that detailed
financial reporting, personal liability, tax filings and other
government red tape can make trusteeship a considerable chore.
You can transfer all of your foundation's assets into a named
fund of the Warren County Foundation and continue the work
of your foundation. The identity and purposes of the original
donor are preserved, and family members or their designees
may continue to participate as fund advisors. Your foundation
pays no more taxes, we handle all the government paperwork
and investment issues are professionally handled by our investment
managers.
If you are an executive in a large company, and wish to be
relieved of some the paperwork that goes along with corporate
philanthropy, we can help you set up a fund in our foundation.
If you wish, you can still personally handle those charitable
contributions that are expected from you directly, but the
Warren County Foundation can relieve you of the considerable
paperwork that results from various charitable appeals from
the community. We can help you develop specific guidelines
for your giving program, handle the requests and distribute
the money throughout the community, giving your company full
credit for the charitable gifts.
If you are a Trustee of a non-profit organization in the community
with a small endowment, we can manage your organization's
endowment, often with a greater financial return. Because
the larger total of our assets enables us to diversify our
investments more readily than agencies with smaller endowments,
you have an opportunity to maximize total return. Investment
charges against your endowment may be reduced. A buffer is
created between your organization and its endowment, thereby
reducing the temptation to invade principal in a temporary
crisis. Plus, we handle all the accounting a reporting entailed
in managing the endowment. And, if you choose, your non-profit
may receive annual distributions for unrestricted use.
You are involved as a volunteer with a civic,
charitable or other group that is operating without paid staff,
and your group is finding it difficult to move to the next
level, which might entail filing of IRS tax-exemption papers
and other organizational red tape. You can affiliate your
organization with ours in what is called a "Supporting
Organization" relationship. In such an arrangement, Trustees
from the Warren County Foundation make up a simple majority
of your organization's Board. Your organization is then a
part of the Warren County Foundation, but may still maintain
its identity in its civic, charitable or other programs. Your
organization is freed from the hassle of administrative red
tape and can focus more directly on the purposes for which
it was created.
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