Getting Started

Welcome, Professional Advisors!

The Community Foundation is happy to offer you our support and assistance as you and your clients consider the charitable giving options that are right for their financial and estate planning circumstances.

Advantages to Working with the Community Foundation

Sample Client Scenarios and How We Can Help

Advantages to working with the Community Foundation

• Our team of professionals has expertise in the variety of philanthropic funds that can be established to fulfill charitable intent. And, we’re glad to work with you and your client (either directly or through you) to explore the financial or estate planning instruments that can best achieve that intent while also providing optimum tax and/or financial benefits.
• You can feel confident that the assets your client commits to a charitable gift or fund at the Community Foundation will be well managed. The Investment Committee of the Board of Directors oversees all investment activities of the Foundation, and works with a highly qualified team of investment professionals, Graystone Consulting, to manage the Foundation’s endowment. See our investment policy here
• We’re here “For Good. For Ever”. The Community Foundation’s endowment ensures that we’re in it for the long term, making grants to benefit our entire community for generations to come.
• Once a fund is established, the Community Foundation handles all administrative responsibilities related to the fund. Your clients won’t have to worry about legal reporting issues or burdensome paperwork. They will receive a gift acknowledgment letter for their contributions suitable for their tax purposes; the Foundation handles all the rest.
• We offer local, personalized service. We’re right here in south central New York (headquartered in Johnson City), and we care about our region and its people just as you do. We encourage all our donors and professional colleagues to feel free to contact us by phone or e-mail or stop by any time.
• You have quick, easy access to comprehensive knowledge about the charitable landscape in the five counties* we serve. We’re familiar with the region’s nonprofits, the work they do, the issues they address, and are pleased to share information with you, as well as with donors.
  *Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego and Tioga
• We understand grant making. Since our inception in 1997, the Community Foundation, in partnership with its donors, has awarded more than $20 million in grants from the funds within the endowment, to the region’s nonprofits.

Scenarios Where the Community Foundation could be the Right Option

Your clients want to “give back” to the community, but are undecided about which organizations to give to. Establishing a Donor Advised fund at the Community Foundation would give your clients a tax deduction for the current year, while allowing them ample time to reflect on the organizations to which they would subsequently like to direct grants.

Your client has appreciated stock and is concerned about capital gains. Appreciated stock can be used to establish or contribute to any of the types of funds that the Community Foundation offers.

Reducing capital gains is important, but lifetime income is also a concern. If the stock or other appreciated asset has considerable value and, in addition, lifetime income is a concern, your client could use the asset to fund a charitable remainder trust (CRT.) Then, at his death, the remainder in the trust would benefit the charities of his choice.

Your client wishes to write a will but is unsure where/how to leave his or her estate. Especially if the client has no children, the decisions made when writing a will can be challenging.  If your client has one or several charitable organizations or concerns in which she is involved, she might be interested in a charitable fund at the Foundation as a way of perpetuating those interests and leaving a legacy to the community.

Your client wants his gift to benefit a particular local organization or group of organizations in perpetuity, but is concerned that future leadership at the organizations might not use the gift as he intends. By setting up a Designated fund at the Community Foundation, your client can ensure that the local organizations of his choice will receive periodic grants from the fund that are restricted for the purpose he intends, even after his death.

Your firm administers a trust or foundation, the trustees or board members are no longer able or interested in staying on and there are no candidates available to take their place. The Community Foundation currently holds several funds that were established by foundations that chose to cease operations but wanted to preserve their founders’ philanthropic legacy, and so opened a named Designated fund prior to dissolution. Other scenarios involve family foundations where subsequent generations have moved the foundation’s headquarters and they wished to leave an active grant making fund in the original region as a tribute to their founders.

These are among the many ways in which we can partner with you to fulfill the needs and wishes of your client. The first step is giving us a call so we can begin the conversation about what your client hopes to accomplish for the community. Executive Director Diane Brown will be glad to schedule a conversation at your convenience. Feel free to call us at (607) 772-6773.