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Kids on a school bus 		Why Give to a Community Foundation
Mother bird feeding baby bird in a the nest

Community foundations are able to put your gifts, small and large, to work for local needs and programs.




Community Foundations specialize in working closely with donors to fulfill your charitable vision through:

Personalized service, helping individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofit agencies achieve their charitable and financial goals with maximum tax advantages. You shape and design your fund's giving focus, and even help recommend grant and scholarship awards.

Local expertise, maintaining an in-depth understanding of your community's needs and challenges—and the groups and individuals addressing them. Gifts to your local community foundation provide you with a network of talented professionals and volunteers who are committed to and knowledgeable about your community.

Community leadership, working with local leaders to build endowment, ensuring that grants are always available to support the community. That means your gifts build and strengthen your community, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Gifts to your local community foundation positively affect your hometown's economic development, support faith-based programs, strengthen conservation initiatives, preserve historic resources, enhance education programs, assist with health and wellness treatment, and more. Here are ten reasons why donors find it fulfilling to give to a community foundation.

Community foundations . . .

  1. Build endowment funds that grow and benefit our community, forever.

  2. Help create an individual or family legacy.

  3. Offer donor involvement in selecting charities.

  4. Are a local organization meeting a broad range of changing local needs.

  5. Provide a simple way to fulfill multiple charitable interests, with low-cost administration.

  6. Deliver personalized donor service with flexible options and responsive advantages.

  7. Accept a wide variety of assets.

  8. Offer maximum tax advantages.

  9. Preserve donor intent even when community needs and organizations change.

  10. Are known for prudent stewardship and investment practices.

Some fast facts about community foundations

  • The first community foundation was founded in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio.
  • There are 26 community foundations in West Virginia. The first was started in 1962 as The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, Charleston.
  • Today, there are more than 650 community foundations across America—one of the fastest growing forms of philanthropy in the nation.
  • Donors are able to establish funds for causes and programs they care most about in their own community.
  • West Virginia's Community Foundation are here. . . For Good. . . For Ever.

Find your local community foundation.

Plan Your Personal Giving | Why Give to a Community Foundation
Find Your Local Community Foundation | For Professional Advisors
Create a WV Nonprofit | Information for Grant Seekers
West Virginia Statistics | Grantmakers Membership Forum



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