Tab 29: List of Funds

The community foundation submits a list of funds, organized by fund type (e.g., scholarship, designated, donor advised). If a community foundation has more than 200 funds, a sample of 25 funds for each fund type will be sufficient and for those foundations with fewer than 200, the list provided should be comprehensive.

For more information, review Core materials, FAQs and a glossary of important terms

 

Related Standards

II. Mission, Structure and Governance

II.F.8    A community foundation's governing body ensures that the community foundation reflects and serves the breadth and diversity of the community.


III. Resource Development

III.A    A community foundation has, or works to develop, broad support in the form of contributions from many separate, unrelated donors with diverse charitable interests in the community served by the community foundation.

III.D    A community foundation accepts and administers a diversity of gift and fund types to meet the varied philanthropic objectives of donors and the needs of the community it serves.

View all National Standards

Key Elements

  1. Variety of separate, unrelated donors (crosscheck with governing instruments and/or sample marketing materials for consistency)
  2. Variety of fields/issues addressed (crosscheck with governing instruments and/or sample marketing materials for consistency)
  3. Variety of fund/gift types (crosscheck with governing instruments and/or sample marketing materials for consistency)
  4. Long-term goal of securing permanent resources to address changing community needs (crosscheck with governing instruments and/or sample marketing materials for consistency)
  5. Evidence that the foundation reflects the community’s breadth and diversity. For this key element, community foundations should submit materials demonstrating how the foundation, broadly speaking, reflects the community’s diversity through, for example, its staff, volunteers, grantees, donors, partners, vendors, etc. Sample characteristics/qualities that might be demonstrated include age, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic background, skill sets, profession/occupation, and political affiliation.

Required Document

  • List of funds by type and focus

 

We have several hundred funds. Do we list all of them?

Please provide your community foundation's list of funds, organized by fund type (e.g., scholarship, designated, donor advised funds). If your community foundation has more than 200 funds, you should provide a sample of 25 funds for each fund type. If your community foundation has fewer than 200 funds, the list you provide should be comprehensive. The list of funds should include, at minimum, fund type, fund amount, and fund focus.


Agency endowed fund
This term can be used interchangeably with organizational endowment fund and connotes a fund established to benefit a particular agency.

Donor
An individual or organization who establishes a fund.

Donor advised funds
A fund may be classified as donor advised if it has at least three characteristics: (1) a donor or person appointed or designated by the donor has, or reasonably expects to have, advisory privileges with respect to the fund's distributions or investments, (2) the fund is separately identified by reference to contributions of the donor(s), and (3) the fund is owned and controlled by a sponsoring organization, such as a community foundation. A fund possessing these characteristics may be exempt from the donor advised fund classification if it grants to one single public charity or government unit or if the fund meets certain requirements applicable to scholarship funds.

Field of interest fund
A fund held by a community foundation that is used for a specific charitable purpose such as education or health research or a specific geographic area.

Fund types
There are a variety of fund types offered by community foundations such as scholarship, donor advised funds, field of interest funds, unrestricted funds, and agency endowment funds.

Restricted fund
Assets or income that is restricted in its use, in the types of organizations that may receive grants from it or in the procedures used to make grants from such funds.

Scholarship Fund
Established to provide support for individuals who are pursuing some training or educational opportunity.

Unrestricted fund
Funds that allow the Foundation to determine where grants will do the most good. Also called discretionary funds, they offer maximum flexibility to react to changing needs in the community.

Reconfirming?

Review all key elements and consider if your organization has made changes to your policies, powers or practices.

Pay special attention to key elements and core materials marked with [R icon] and a [P icon]. These represent minimum requirements for reconfirmation as well as Pension Protection Act requirements. Items marked with a [P icon] are particularly critical for those who submitted record books prior to January 2007.

Document your compliance with each of these items as well as with all other key elements where support materials may have changed.

View all of these requirements