Policy

Charitable funds are versatile, durable and as unique as the donors who create them.

Our donor-advised funds currently are as small as $1,000 and as large as $225,000. But their sizes are limitless.

Their purposes stretch from the all-encompassing like “meeting local needs” to the exact like “providing scholarships to graduates of Crescenta Valley High School”; from the specific like “to provide music books for the Brand Library Collection” to the general like “to help needy families and unfortunate children.”

And their names can be as private as the “Montrose Search & Rescue Endowment Fund” or as family-proud as the “Cheryl DuFour Fund.”

Charitable funds within the Glendale Community Foundation are as diverse as the donors who established them. Yet all work in essentially the same simple way.

Maximum flexibility

Many donors give to the unrestricted endowment which allows the greatest flexibility to our volunteer Board of Trustees to address the most pressing needs of our community at any one time.

Maximum specificity

Others give their fund its name and purpose.

Maximum permanence

Every year, a portion of the return from these invested contributions is pared off to make grants. The remainder is retained, ensuring that the fund is always there to continue working for future grants.

You might think of endowed charitable funds like perennial flower gardens. They yield benefits year after year.

Over the past year a windfall of donors have created a variety of donor-advised funds with the Glendale Community Foundation. Their diversity indicates the many ways in which funds can be created and focused. Some took advantage of year-end giving for tax consequences, others created a memorial for a loved one; some funds are endowments, others are pass-through. All illustrate the versatility and flexibility of the Community Foundation.