Balancing immediate and long-term support for your favorite community causes
Written by:
Robin Elmerick, Sr Director of Effective Philanthropy
At the CICF Collaborative (which includes Central Indiana Community Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation, IMPACT Central Indiana, the Indianapolis Foundation, and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana), we’re committed to working with individuals, families, and businesses to help make a difference in the causes you care about. Indeed, many people have at least a general idea of the community impact they’d like to achieve when they first establish a fund. If you’ve already established a donor-advised or other type of fund, or if you are considering doing so, you might have a list of charities and priorities as your focus.
That said, for donors who are still clarifying their philanthropic motives, we have an exercise that many find helpful in identifying the areas that matter most to them. This Values, Interests Purpose (VIP) exercise is facilitated by our philanthropic advising team and results in a mission statement for your charitable giving. Reach out to your advisor if you are interested. Our team can help you achieve your charitable goals—from identifying your mission to facilitating longstanding gifts to introducing you to new initiatives and programs that fall within your areas of interest.
Here’s another question that’s important to answer: How long would you like your charitable dollars to be at work? The CICF Collaborative is equipped to help you with this component of your giving, too. Here are six questions we’ll consider when establishing your charitable giving plan and corresponding fund structure:
- Are the causes and issues that matter most to you likely to represent short-term, immediate community needs, or are they likely to be important needs over generations?
- Would you like your children, grandchildren, or other loved ones to help guide your charitable fund in the future?
- Would you like to see and experience the results of your giving now, or are you more focused on establishing something lasting beyond your lifetime?
- Are tax savings, estate planning goals, or retirement income needs part of what you’d like your charitable plan to support?
- If you’re interested in both immediate impact and long-term legacy, what portion of your charitable fund would you like to see spent down versus preserved in perpetuity?
- When you think about your charitable impact—whether in five years or fifty—what would make you feel that you accomplished your purpose?
As we work together to consider these questions, our team is happy to offer suggested reading to help inform your decision-making process about the benefits of each type of structure, or a hybrid.
Many donors choose to combine strategies as they work with the CICF Collaborative to build a portfolio of charitable giving vehicles to accomplish all aspects of their philanthropy goals. Here is an example:
- A donor-advised fund to organize annual giving to favorite charities, including taking advantage of “bunching” techniques to front-load contributions to take advantage of itemizing charitable deductions.
- A designated fund to support a specific favorite charity in perpetuity, ensuring that charitable funds will be preserved even if the charity falls on hard times.
- Annual gifts to an endowment fund within the CICF Collaborative so that critical issues can be addressed in perpetuity as the community’s needs change over time.
- Beneficiary designations on traditional IRAs and other qualified retirement plans naming both the donor-advised fund and a CICF Collaborative entity’s endowment fund to receive the proceeds.
Please reach out anytime – our collaborative team is here to talk with you about your favorite charities, your philanthropy values, and your goals for impact. Together, we can create a charitable giving plan that reflects your vision, whether that means lasting forever, making a difference right now, or both.
About the CICF Collaborative
CICF Collaborative is a partnership of philanthropic organizations working together to strengthen communities across the region. Each entity within the CICF Collaborative (including the cornerstone entities, Central Indiana Community Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation, IMPACT Central Indiana, the Indianapolis Foundation, and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana) brings deep knowledge, strong relationships, and its own individual, focused mission. The CICF Collaborative unites the entities by providing shared services, allowing the entities to operate more efficiently and effectively. By leveraging what we each do best, we’re able to better serve our communities and create more lasting impact, together. Learn more »
About the Author
Robin Elmerick, senior director of effective philanthropy has been with CICF since 2019. A certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor, she works closely with fundholders across all entities of the CICF Collaborative to help them define their philanthropic strategies and maximize their impact. With a background in nonprofit leadership and consulting, she is passionate about bridging the needs of the community with the missions of nonprofits and the passions of our fundholders, aligning all three to create meaningful change in Central Indiana and beyond.