You know you want to make a real difference with your charitable giving. And you already know how you want to do it.
By creating a Designated Fund or a Field of Interest Fund at the Community Foundation of Broward, you lock in permanent, endowed support for specific organizations or certain causes that matter most to you.
You can create either type of these endowed funds with a gift today or use your estate plan to launch your fund with a future bequest.
And that’s not all. With your fund, you get a philanthropy partner who ensures your support is always used as you intended – creating a BOLD impact that never ends.
With a professionally managed endowed fund at the Community Foundation, your gift grows through our careful investment. Our stewardship ensures that the organizations or causes you care about can rely on a perpetual stream of annual support from you, instead of a one-time gift.
- Designated Fund: You don’t have to worry about a potential change in leadership, a hastily conceived program or a financial shortfall syphoning away a gift you intended to help sustain an organization forever. When you create a Designated Fund at the Community Foundation, the organization you want to support can focus on its core mission as we focus on protecting and growing your gift.
- Field of Interest Fund: With a Field of Interest Fund, our expert team finds innovative, impactful opportunities for support from your fund to champion issues close to your heart. Whether it’s support for the environment, the arts, career readiness or other any other philanthropic passion, a Field of Interest Fund ensures there will be permanent
Here are three examples of how our Fundholders fuel life-changing philanthropy with their endowed funds at the Community Foundation:
Mary N. Porter
After a lifetime of philanthropy, Mary N. Porter trusted the Community Foundation to become her “eyes and ears” and carry on her legacy of BOLD impact. Her estate gift – the Foundation’s largest gift ever – created several endowed charitable funds, including the Mary Porter Designated Fund.
Three of Mary’s funds provide permanent support for a variety of issues close to Mary’s heart, with flexibility for the Community Foundation to direct support to organizations best suited to create the biggest impact possible. With her Designated Fund, Mary locked in forever support for specific organizations, in Broward and beyond, that were important to her.
Broward’s animals, the arts and struggling residents all benefit from the Mary Porter Designated Fund’s support for local organizations such as Humane Society of Broward County, Gold Coast Jazz Society, Symphony of the Americas, Goodwill Industries Broward County, Henderson Behavioral and more. Beyond Broward, Mary’s Designated Fund sends a permanent stream of support to her beloved hometown – Pottstown, Pennsylvania. For example, the YMCA Pottstown and First Presbyterian Pottstown can count on receiving Mary’s support forever.
Since 2012, the Mary Porter Designated Fund has deployed more than $12 million in support to the organizations that meant so much to Mary. And as part of her agreement, should any of these organizations cease to exist, the Community Foundation will ensure that Mary’s support is redistributed to fuel the missions of the other organizations she selected.
“When Mary Porter set up her estate plan, she knew the Foundation would become her eyes and ears,” said Jennifer O’Flannery Anderson, Community Foundation President/CEO. “We are dedicated to making sure her philanthropy remains relevant and continues to have a positive impact on our community for generations to come.”
Lesley Mitchell Jones
Feeling “totally stressed out” by her charitable giving, Lesley Mitchell Jones wanted a philanthropy partner to help her get organized and ensure a lasting impact.
By collaborating with the Community Foundation, Lesley now has three charitable funds – one created to tackle Broward’s biggest emerging challenges, one to specifically target elder issues and another to lock in support for several organizations that mean so much to Lesley.
The endowed Lesley Mitchell Jones Charitable Fund ensures forever support for Kids In Distress, Cardinal Gibbons High School and Saint Anthony Catholic School – helping local children and boosting two Fort Lauderdale educational institutions for generations to come. Beyond Broward, Lesley’s fund will provide permanent support for the Center for Hospice Care Southeast Connecticut’s mission to provide peace and comfort to patients and their families.
Lesley said she likes partnering with the Community Foundation because she sees the impact of her giving today and she knows that support from her endowed funds will create a BOLD impact, in her name, forever.
“Now I have peace of mind knowing that the Community Foundation will ‘mind the store’ on my behalf to ensure the organizations and issues I care about are supported forever,” Lesley said. “I can’t imagine a smarter, more impactful way to create a brighter future.”
Alese J. Shapiro
Alese J. Shapiro loved providing a little extra fun for underprivileged students when she volunteered as a reading instructor at Riverland Elementary School. Thanks to Alese’s generosity, Riverland students got to enjoy visits from the ice cream truck and other occasional treats to brighten their school days.
To honor Alese when she died, her adult children teamed with the Community Foundation to keep bringing smiles to students’ faces. They created the Alese J. Shapiro Fund, an endowed fund established to support fun activities for children passing through Riverland Elementary for years to come.
Initially, grants from the Alese J. Shapiro Fund helped Riverland Elementary students participate in field trips and school projects they otherwise couldn’t afford. Over the years, as opportunities to make use of Alese’s Fund at the school became more limited, the Community Foundation team identified an alternative way to carry on Alese’s mission to help kids that Riverland Elementary serves.
With the consent of Alese’s family, the Alese J. Shapiro Fund is now a dedicated source of support for Boys & Girls Clubs’ Lester H. White Club/NFL YET Center. Riverland Elementary is one of the club’s feeder schools and most of the club’s members are elementary-aged students. The club’s many afterschool programs, athletic leagues and other youth activities provide ample opportunities for grants from Alese’s fund to keep making life better for students in need.
“She loved the kids in the neighborhood. She loved the kids in the school,” said Amanda Kah, the Foundation’s Charitable Funds Services Director who helped find an alternative way to continue Alese’s legacy of bold impact. “This is a way to bring joy to those kids, in Alese’s name, forever.”
CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT ALL THE TYPES OF CHARITABLE FUNDS AVAILABLE AT THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION.
To learn more about Designated Funds and other types of charitable Funds available at the Community Foundation, contact Kelly Marmol, Vice President of Philanthropic Services, at kmarmol@cfbroward.org or 954-761-9503.
