Designated Funds
Designated funds are great for individuals or families who have a commitment to supporting certain organizations, but would like The Columbus Foundation to handle the administrative work for them. Often these funds are set up by an
individual, or
family with a gift from an estate. These designated funds can be set up during ones lifetime as well. If you have a passion or connection to specific organizations and want to continue to support their good work, this fund type is for you.
Designated Funds can be opened with a minimum initial gift of $10,000. You may make this gift of securities or other assets. Your gift qualifies for an immediate tax deduction and you will get quarterly fund journals that will outline any gifts that you made to your fund, any interest earned, any fees assigned and any grants made. You also get to name your fund, often it is named after the donor.
Once your fund is established, you will be able to choose an investment agent from our list of 29 investment options. Each of our investment agents invests more than $1million of our assets and has been approved by our investment committee.
There are two fees associated with each of our funds: one is our administrative fee which is based on the type of fund and the fund balance; and the other is the investment agent fee. To hear more about how our donors have utilized The Columbus Foundation by opening a designated fund, check out their stories.
Although we encourage our donors to add to their funds whenever they would like, we do have certain guidelines in place in order to assure that we follow the IRS requirements for having a Community Foundation. If you are thinking of holding a fundraiser, please see our fundraising policy.
To learn more, contact a member of our Donor Services team at 614/251-4000 by e-mail. Or, if you are interested in becoming a donor, please complete this brief Become a Donor form and a Donor Services officer will respond within the next business day.