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Professional Advisors
The Community Foundation can help your clients achieve their charitable giving dreams while also providing significant financial benefits through tax reduction. Our goal is to work with you to help your clients fulfill their goals. The Foundation can help donors by providing information about types of funds available and providing easy access to the most cost effective methods of giving in order to take full advantage of all relative tax savings and ensure that donors' wishes are fully realized. The Foundation does not offer financial or technical advice and recommends that clients discuss these issues with their professional advisors.
What makes us different?
- Unlike most charitable giving, which is used to fund current needs, gifts to San Luis Obispo County Community Foundation are permanent donations that are invested in order to grow the money into the future. The interest accrued from these moneys can be used to fund charitable groups forever, thus ensuring stable and reliable resources for the community.
- Gifts to the Foundation are donor driven and can be customized to reflect the active input and concerns of the donor either through the selection of the recipient, a field of interest, or through donors participating as advisors in grant-making.
- The Foundation can accept almost any kind of gift including cash, appreciated securities, bonds, real property and insurance.
- We are not limited in what we do. We fund "from the Arts to the Zoo" and work with donors on establishing funds that meet their interest.
Planned Giving Opportunities include:
- Charitable Remainder Trusts in which a trust is established and the donor receives a fixed or variable income from the trust, as well as a sizeable tax deduction.
- Charitable Lead Trusts in which a donor establishes a trust and the Foundation receives an annual income stream for a specified number of years after which it reverts back to named beneficiaries, usually family members.
- Bequests
- Life Insurance Beneficiary Designation
Maximum Tax Advantages:
As a 501(c) 3 organization, donors get the maximum tax benefit and can deduct any gift up to a maximum of 50% of their AGI with any excess spread over five years. On gifts of appreciated property (real property and securities), donors can claim 30% of the value.
Costs and Fund Minimums:
The Community Foundation accepts gifts of any size into established funds, including our Cornerstone Fund and Community Endowment. The minimum to establish a named fund with us is $25,000; named scholarship funds are established at $50,000 or more. However, the sum can be achieved over a five year period. We encourage donors to distribute 4.5% of the earnings from their fund on an annual basis, and allow any additional earnings to help grow the principal. There is no minimum distribution requirement, however.
In order to support the operating costs of the Foundation, we assess a fee based on the fair market value of the fund annually, and based on both the size of the fund balance and type of fund established. Please contact the Community Foundation for the current fee schedule.
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Donor Service - Our Commitment to You and Your Client
Unlike other charities, our main goal is to meet the needs of our donors, who are also your clients. We pride ourselves on helping each donor meet their particular goal and are willing to work with individuals, groups, business or organizations in establishing endowed funds. Our pledge is to be responsive and helpful to you and your client as well as provide all needed information. Please do not hesitate to call with any questions you may have!
Donor Advised Fund: An Alternative to Establish a Private Foundation:
There is more interest in establishing family foundations as private wealth has increased. However, establishing a private foundation can be costly, with legal fees between $4,000 and $6,000 with additional annual outlays for administration and operational support. The IRS also requires that all donations to a private foundation and any salaries paid by the foundation be disclosed for public record. In addition, the tax benefits for giving to a private foundation are less than contributing to a community foundation. However, one option for your client is to establish a donor advised fund at the Community Foundation. In addition to maximum tax advantages, the Community Foundation handles all of the auditing, accounting, insurance and other "back office" support that can be very costly in running a family foundation. Donors can arrange for their children to become advisors to the fund after their death and the children can then make recommendations to the Foundation on which organizations they would like to support. Anonymity and confidentially are assured to the extent your client would like. It is a very cost effective way to keep a family involved in charitable giving.
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