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.
Donor Advised. This type of endowment 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 endowment 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 endowment functions very much like your own private foundation, but the Lincoln Community Foundation handles all the administrative, financial and reporting duties.
Designated. This type of endowment 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 endowment.
Scholarship. This is a specialized type of endowment that can be directed to benefit students. With your generous assistance, deserving students achieve their academic and career-oriented goals.
Area of Interest. This type of endowment 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 homeless, the environment, education, youth-at-risk, or any aspect of life that is of special interest to you. The Foundation's staff then makes sure that all grants from your endowment are directed to projects that are making a difference in your specified area of interest.
Unrestricted. This is the broadest type of endowment and one that has the potential for the greatest long-term impact on the community's greatest needs and opportunities. Rather than designating a specific recipient or identifying a particular area 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 greatest opportunities or 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.
