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Individuals, businesses and private foundations can create a donor advised fund with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and take advantage of this simple, flexible and cost-effective charitable giving vehicle. Those that have created a donor advised fund with us have full access to our professional staff for assistance in researching nonprofit causes they may wish to support and developing gifting plans to most efficiently make gifts into their donor advised fund.

Once you have a donor advised fund with the Community Foundation, you also can have access to information regarding the fund 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through our online Donor Central service. You can review the balance of the fund, see historical information and investment performance information, and make grant recommendations online. (Advisers who have already signed up for the Donor Central service can click here to access the service.)

You can add to your donor advised fund at any time. Please call us at (313) 961-6675 if you need assistance in making a gift into a donor advised fund or visit our How to Give section for gift procedures.

So what is a donor advised fund?

A donor advised fund is a fund you create with the Community Foundation into which you can make tax-deductible contributions at any time. You - or others you designate - retain the right to recommend grants from the fund to support any 501(c)(3) public charity in the United States - provided the grant is at least $250 and the adviser receives no personal benefit (such as tickets to a fund-raising event) because of the grant. The adviser also has the right to recommend investment strategies to provide tax-free growth of the fund's assets to enhance the amount available to be distributed from the fund.

Better than a private foundation?

A donor advised fund is a better option than a private foundation for many. Benefits include: no start-up costs, it can be created in hours, no ongoing administrative filings such as tax returns, and the fund is immediately recognized as a part of a tax-exempt charity in order to facilitate tax deductible gifts. Donor advised funds can carry your name or can be created anonymously (private foundations can't), so as to provide you with the level of publicity you desire.

Gifts into the donor advised fund qualify for more favorable tax deductions and are sometimes valued higher than similar gifts into a private foundation. In addition, donor advised funds are not subject to excise taxes or the mandatory 5% distribution rule applicable to private foundations.

Best yet, you can stay involved - and so can your family. You also benefit from all of the professional staff support available at the Community Foundation.

Please review the rest of our pages on donor advised funds, review our donor advised fund brochure (Download Adobe PDF Document), or call us at (313) 961-6675 to learn more about this giving opportunity.