A fund at the Jewish Community Foundation provides lasting rewards for you, your family, and your community.

To support the causes you’re most passionate about, you can create a meaningful charitable gift plan — ranging from donor advised funds to permanent endowment funds — by working with JCF staff through the seven-step process described below.

Contributions to your fund are professionally invested and managed. They grow tax free, enabling you to donate even more to your favorite charities. During your lifetime, you’ll also witness the benefits your dollars make to the causes most important to you.

Creating Charitable Funds at the Jewish Community Foundation

Download the Chart as a PDF here.

A private foundation may be a good option for some donors, but the cost of establishing a private foundation and the costs of ongoing administration can be high. A Donor Advised Fund or a Supporting Organization with JCF provides most of the advantages of private foundation at a fraction of the cost — with considerably less work and usually with better tax benefits. A Donor Advised Fund or Supporting Organization is like having a private foundation at your fingertips.

Step 1. Determine the Type of Fund

Choose which type of fund you would like to create:

Donor Advised Fund – Enables you to recommend grants to qualified charities that match your interests with a $100 minimum distribution. Think of a DAF as your charitable checking account. It’s simple. You make grant recommendations to qualified charities that match your interests, and we handle the check writing and administration.

Endowment Fund – A permanent source of support for your favorite cause(s), granting 5% of the fund balance each year, while the principal is invested and continues to grow. May be either a “Designated Endowment Fund” in which annual grants are made to your preferred organizations, or it may be a “Field of Interest Endowment Fund” in which annual grants are made to your preferred fields of interest as identified in your JCF fund agreement (see step #5 below).

Learn more about the different fund types available with JCF here.

Step 2. Name the Fund

Select the name for your fund, which will link you to future generations and leave a lasting legacy for those who follow you. The name of the fund may be your own name, the name of someone you’d like to honor, or some other name of your choice.

Step 3. Contribute Assets

Begin your newly named fund by gifting a minimum of $10,000 to the Jewish Community Foundation. Determine whether you will contribute these assets during your lifetime, after your lifetime, or both. Your gift can be cash, marketable securities, real estate, life insurance, retirement accounts, or other assets (upon the Foundation’s approval). We can help you determine which assets may be most advantageous from a tax and gift-planning perspective.

Step 4. Receive a Tax Deduction

You may receive an immediate tax deduction for the year in which you donate assets to your fund. If you are not able to use the deduction in the year of your contribution, you may be able to use the deduction in future years.

Step 5. Write a Fund Agreement

Meet with Foundation staff to write an agreement that states your wishes for distributions from your fund. We provide oversight to ensure that your wishes are honored in perpetuity.

Step 6. Write Your Legacy Story in the Endowment Book of Life (optional)

If you choose, when you create a permanent endowment with JCF, we will assist you in writing your legacy story in the Endowment Book of Life, publicly sharing and connecting your values with future generations. The Book of Life symbolizes the concept of L’dor v’dor, passing on traditions and stories from one generation to the next.

Step 7. Add Assets to the Fund

Add to your fund whenever you like, when it is most convenient for you, or when the tax consequences of your gift may be most advantageous. Or others may contribute to your fund in your honor. You can also add to your fund at the end of your life, through your will, trust, retirement plan or life insurance.

Start the Fund Creation Process

To start the process for creating a donor advised or permanent endowment fund at JCF, get in touch with us today.