Leave a legacy to our community.
Grays Harbor Community Foundation provides a way for an individual or family to give to specific charities, communities or causes. You can create a legacy that will benefit your community for generations to come by establishing a fund with us. Anything is possible. Just tell us what you care about and we will help create a plan tailored for you.
How setting up a new fund works.
Setting up a new fund at the Grays Harbor Community Foundation typically takes about an hour. For most funds, we modify a simple agreement corresponding to one of six basic fund types, tailoring it to fit the donor’s objectives. The basic fund types are: unrestricted, area of interest, designated, donor advised, agency, and scholarship. However, some donors’ interests may warrant the design of a custom agreement.
Once your fund is set up, we maintain a separate file for it and handle all tax filings, grants processing, and other paperwork for the fund.
While each fund is accounted for individually, the assets of most funds are pooled together for investment purposes. Our ability to pool funds helps us realize certain economies of scale that would not be available were each of our funds managed separately.
There’s no fee to establish a fund. There is a minimum amount we ask donors to contribute, but each fund request is considered individually. (Of course, too small a gift may not be sufficient to meet a donor’s objectives.) Our expenses are covered by a 1% annual fee we charge to all of our funds. That means that for a gift of $10,000, we will allocate from the fund $100 each year to cover our administrative expenses. This sort of fee-arrangement has been the standard practice of community foundations across the country for 95 years.
Our staff has access to an extraordinary range of experience and resources for donors with specific goals. As members of the Council on Foundations, we have access to a network of more than 850 community foundations throughout the country. Our aim, now and always, is to provide professional service and thorough knowledge of community needs for all donors in Grays Harbor.
Guide to Local Philanthropy
The Foundation connects donors with local needs and opportunities, offering various flexible giving options and six fund types, including Agency, Designated, Scholarship, Donor Advised, Field of Interest, and Endowment Funds, to suit different charitable goals. Learn more about how to start giving to Grays Harbor in our local guide to philanthropy.
Guidelines for Donor Advised Funds
The purpose of the Donor Advised Fund program is to create an opportunity for people like you to give back to their communities in an informed and active way. This handbook is designed to explain the Community Foundation’s procedures and to answer some of the basic questions you may have about your Donor Advised Fund.
Questions about giving?
Our professional, experienced staff is here to answer all of your questions.
