To ensure that your philanthropy meets all of your charitable and financial goals, the Lincoln Community Foundation provides a variety of programs for directing your gift to the ultimate beneficiary.

Expendable Giving Vehicles
The Lincoln Community Foundation offers expendable vehicles that are ideal for smaller, recurring donations. Typically, a family or individual writes many checks during a year for donations to a place of worship, fund drives and other special causes. Use of an expendable vehicle at the Foundation can make such ongoing charitable giving more convenient and, in many cases, more favorable from a tax standpoint.

Charitable Checking Account, or Donor-Directed Depository. You can control your gifts by notifying the Foundation as to when you would like to make distributions from your account, to whom the distributions will be made and how much the distributions will be; we distribute the dollars. You get the full tax advantages and only have to keep track of one receipt.

Donor Advised Fund. This type of fund is designed to keep you and/or your family continually involved in determining the many ways your gift is used in the future. Each year, you (or your named representatives) identify ways to use dollars from your fund to address the issues and needs you care about most. Your recommendations are submitted to our board for approval; we then distribute the grant dollars. A donor advised fund functions very much like your own private foundation, but the Lincoln Community Foundation handles all the administrative, financial and reporting duties.

Endowed Funds
An endowed fund is designed to last – and grow – forever. Its purpose is to provide a continuing, perpetual stream of grants to the organizations or causes that the donor chooses. To accommodate a wide range of donor desires, the Lincoln Community Foundation offers several different types of endowed funds:

Donor Advised Fund. This type of fund is designed to keep you and/or your family continually involved in determining the many ways your gift is used in the future. Each year, you (or your named representatives) identify ways to use dollars from your fund to address the issues and needs you care about most. Your recommendations are submitted to our board for approval; we then distribute the grant dollars. A donor advised fund functions very much like your own private foundation, but the Lincoln Community Foundation handles all the administrative, financial and reporting duties.

Designated Fund. This type of fund has the most narrow focus. You can use your gift to benefit one or more specific nonprofit organizations. For example, you might designate the senior center, the museum, your place of worship, or virtually any nonprofit charitable organization as the sole recipient of grants from your fund.

Endowing your nonprofit organization.
Nonprofit organizations can also establish a designated fund or agency endowment at the Lincoln Community Foundation. It's a simple and efficient way to build an endowment – and help create sustainability – for your nonprofit organization. The Foundation's experienced staff can also help your organization develop planned giving programs and assist with investment management and administrative details.

Scholarship. This is a specialized type of endowed fund that can be directed to benefit students. You determine the criteria a student must meet in order to qualify for a scholarship from your fund. You may specify that the students be from a certain community, attend a particular school, or major in a certain field of study. With your generous assistance, deserving students achieve their academic and career-oriented goals.

Field of Interest Fund. This type of fund has a broader focus. You specify an important area of community life that is to benefit from your gift. For example, you could specify performing arts, services for the aging, the environment, education, youth-at-risk, or any aspect of life that is of special interest to you. The Foundation's program staff then makes sure that all grants from your fund are directed to projects that are making a difference in your specified field of interest.

Unrestricted Fund. This is the broadest type of fund and one that has the potential for the greatest long-term impact on the community's most pressing needs. Rather than designating a specific recipient or identifying a particular field of interest, you entrust the Lincoln Community Foundation with putting your gift to work wherever it will do the greatest community good. Community needs change over time and the issues that need to be addressed many years from now may be quite different from the issues that need to be addressed this year and next. Our staff is continually evaluating all aspects of community well-being – arts and culture, economic development, education, environment, health and human services, neighborhood revitalization, and more. The flexibility of an unrestricted gift enables the Foundation to respond, in your name, to the community's most pressing needs, today and tomorrow.

Supporting Organization. A supporting organization is an excellent alternative to a private foundation. With a supporting organization, you help select board members, choose the investments, and direct grants to the causes you care about most. Plus, you get the most favorable tax treatment, immediate startup, and the ease of administration that comes with working through the Lincoln Community Foundation. In short, a supporting organization offers the advantages of a private foundation without the more restrictive private foundation IRS regulations.

There is so much more we'd like you to know. For more information and ideas on ways to integrate charitable giving with a financial plan, ask your financial advisor or contact the Lincoln Community Foundation at (402) 474-2345, toll free (888) 448-4668 or lcf@lcf.org. We will be happy to work with you and/or your advisor to determine the most effective ways to accomplish your charitable goals.