by Carol Gilbert
April 16, 2008
Our nation and Iowa are experiencing a historic intergenerational transfer of wealth passing from parents and grandparents to . . . someone or something. In Hardin County, approximately $52.1 million is transferred annually.
The question yet to be answered is how much of this will be directed toward philanthropy providing long-term, ongoing sources of support for Hardin County.
Capturing even a small portion of this transfer into a community endowment, like the Hardin County Community Endowment Foundation (HCCEF), can create a significant pool of flexible assets for our communities.
Why do community foundations matter in Hardin County?
They create a local capture mechanism for philanthropic dollars. Often rural communities have no existing mechanism that allows them to “give back to the community.” As a result, rural people often give – especially legacy gifts – to an alma mater or to some national organization fighting disease. Having a community endowment can capture some of that philanthropic leakage for our hometown benefits.
They enable our communities to leverage other resources into the community – for example, by providing a local fiscal agent, or a local match that attracts funds from some inside or outside source.
They build community assets. Community funds help in building organizational assets (the community endowment plus the non-profits it helps strengthen); leadership assets in the form of the board, advisory committees and volunteers that the community fund energizes in the community; and action assets, when it oversees essential programs to address persistent problems or emerging issues.
They give local people control over the strategic direction the community endowment takes, as well as the geographic freedom to create and address a “region that makes sense.”
They build community. Growing an endowment and determining how to do it requires that you friend-raise as you fund-raise and action-raise. Low-population areas must tap every resource possible to build a sizeable endowment, so they are motivated to work to build them together.
They grow hope. Once a community fund gets going, the resulting grantmaking and community investment begins to do good work. By generating small wins, and then bigger wins, community success breeds on itself into a repetitive upward spiral. In some places, the act of building endowments is indeed transforming.
What is the potential of philanthropy in building Hardin County’s future? According to many, we might be at the beginning of a new golden age in philanthropic growth in rural America – but it won’t happen without a serious commitment to doing so.
Thanks, in large part, to initiatives passed by the Iowa Legislature in 2004, government is helping philanthropy better serve society. The Iowa Legislature is creating the environment in which philanthropy can grow and prosper and is helping build endowments.
One of those new initiatives is the Endow Iowa Program which provides donors an Iowa income tax credit worth 20 percent of the value of their charitable contribution (in addition to the tax deduction they receive for making a charitable donation). Eligible contributions given to endowments at qualified community foundations, like the Hardin County Community Endowment Foundation, may be made in any amount to take advantage of this credit.
Community foundations are offering people of all means the opportunity to give with meaning. The most compelling ways aim to produce specific, long-lasting community improvement. Among these new forms are:
n Community Unrestricted Endowments: Donors are able to provide the Foundation with the greatest flexibility to respond to the ever-changing needs in our communities.
n Donor Advised Funds: Donors are targeting their giving within their communities, supporting the goals, the people and the causes in which they believe.
With the creation of the Hardin County Community Endowment Foundation in 2005, donors now have even more opportunities to make a difference in our community and county. Ten years from now, what will you wish you had done today? This is the challenge – and the opportunity – for Hardin County.
Carol Gilbert is chair of the Hardin County Community Endowment Foundation board of directors. She can be reached at (515) 855-4170 or carolg@peconet.net.