A community foundation has three special features. It is the combination of these features that distinguishes community foundations, and provides opportunities for donors and our community.
Community foundations combine three main roles:
Endowment Building and Donor Service
A gift to the community foundation is a gift that lasts forever. Community foundations connect donors with the issues and organizations that matter most to them.
Grantmaking
Community foundations support a wide range of causes – not just one sector or charity.
Community Convening & Leadership
Because community foundations cross many sectors and take an independent view of community issues, they are able to champion the interests of the community at large.
The community foundation difference
Our special strengths
- A long-term view: Because community foundations focus on building permanent endowments, they are able to tackle tong-term community challenges as well as immediate needs.
- Permanence: Gifts to a community foundation endowment meet community needs in perpetuity.
- Community-based, personalized donor service: community foundations are uniquely equipped to help individual donors meet their particular philanthropic goals by providing in-depth knowledge of community opportunities along with expertise in a wide range of flexible charitable giving options.
- A broad perspective: Community foundations make effective grants and develop networks in a wide range of sectors.
- Commitment to community service: Community foundations are broad-based, volunteer-driven local organizations.
- Accountability: As responsible members of the voluntary sector, community foundations strive for flexible, transparent governance and leadership practices that welcome volunteer involvement, encourage dialogue among diverse voices in the community, and inspire commitment to philanthropy.
Through the Brant Community Foundation, you have an opportunity to make a lasting difference in your community and to help shape its future. The donation you make, whether received during your lifetime, or afterward through a bequest in your will or a life insurance policy, will be invested as permanently endowed funds to generate income for charitable purposes in the community, year after year. When you set up a permanent fund with the Foundation, you may select from the several different types of funds, and choose an appropriate name by which the fund will be known.