GRAYS HARBOR COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
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GRAYS HARBOR COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
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DESIGNATED FUNDS
Some donors may wish to provide long-term support for a specific community need or a specific nonprofit organization. A designated fund at the Grays Harbor Community Foundation is designed to give donors the confidence that their gift will always be used for its stated purpose and it will remain a permanent fund through our board of directors' careful stewardship of funds. Creating a designated, permanent endowment fund at a community foundation often makes more sense than giving such a gift to a charity directly, for three reasons: 1. PERMANENCY A community foundation can give donors greater confidence that their gift will always be used for long-term support and that principle won't be tapped for short-term, short-sighted needs. In large part, this confidence rests on the breadth, character, and commitment to Grays Harbor of our board of directors. It also rests on the fact that our foundation, by its permanent nature and broad scope, brings a long-term vision to specific decisions. 2. INVESTMENT EXPERTISE A community foundation often has greater expertise in managing investments than do the boards of other nonprofit organizations. At the very least, the appeal of a community foundation rests on the idea that not all nonprofit organizations need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to investing. If a community foundation can serve specific nonprofit organizations in this capacity, we aim to do so for the benefit of the larger community as a whole. For example, one might reasonably suppose that a museum board's primary role should be managing a museum, not managing investments. Similarly, the focus of an after-school program's board should be running a strong after-school program, not managing investments. In this sense and in this capacity, we at the community foundation hope and aim to become servant-leaders to the nonprofit community of Grays Harbor. At the same time, it must be said that we do not claim to be the best at managing investments or giving wise oversight to the nonprofits we aim to serve. We simply hope that we might be of service to at least some nonprofits. 3. VARIANCE POWER Finally, a community foundation has the ability to redirect the specific use of a designated fund, should the fund's primary beneficiary or purpose ever cease to exist, become impossible to fulfill, or change in such a way that support from the fund is unnecessary or irrelevant. This "variance power" is unique to community foundations. It is designed to give donors the confidence that even if the original intention of their gift becomes impossible to fulfill, the community foundation will always be able to ensure that the original spirit of their gift remains intact. For instance, a fund created to fight polio might today be used to fight multiple sclerosis. Likewise, a fund created two decades ago to benefit the Aberdeen YMCA would now most likely be used to benefit the YMCA of Grays Harbor. In both cases, there would be no need to hire lawyers, bring the case to court, or incur other unnecessary expenses to make these necessary changes.
To learn more about designated funds and their possibilities, please contact us.
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Grays Harbor Community Foundation is a tax-exempt public charity dedicated to serving the broad needs of Grays Harbor County in Washington State. We are a member of the Council on Foundations; we have committed ourselves to the National Standards for U.S. community foundations; we are audited annually; and we consider ourselves accountable to the public upon whom we depend for support.We thank Darrell Westmoreland, Kevin Hong, Ellen Pickell, and the Polson Museum for providing the photographs used in this website. We'd like to showcase the work of more local photographers and artists on this website and in our publications. Please contact us if you'd like to help. Mail: 707 J Street | P.O. Box 615 | Hoquiam, WA 98550Email: info@gh-cf.orgPhone: 360.532.1600Fax: 360.532.8111Last modified: 08/21/06 |
