Types of Funds

The Columbus Foundation offers a range of charitable giving options that are flexible and allow you to support the causes you care about. We are the philanthropic advisor to more than 1,700 individual and families who want to improve their communities through the most effective charitable giving possible. By offering you personal service and sharing our resources on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, can help you realize your goals.

For more than 66 years, we’ve been helping donors from all walks of life who share a common goal—improving the community and making a difference in the lives of others.

Charitable Fund Types:

• Donor Advised Funds centers around the causes and organizations—in central Ohio and beyond—that you care about. You realize tax savings now, and on your own schedule make giving decisions to the organizations you choose and let The Columbus Foundation handle the administrative details. Donor Advised Funds are especially useful for donors who want to take a charitable deduction one year and make distributions over several years.
  
  
• Scholarship Funds supports any level of education and can be awarded to students based on the criteria you establish: a particular school, major, specific need, academic achievement, or graduating from a specific high school or geographic area. We offer ScholarLink, an online searchable database for students searching for scholarships.
  
  
• Designated Funds focuses on specific nonprofit organizations or institutions you name as grant recipients when you establish your fund. These charities will benefit from your fund during your lifetime and beyond.
  
  
• Field of Interest Funds are devoted to a specific cause that you name. It can be a particular issue or geographic area.
  
  
• Organization Endowment Funds allows a nonprofit to establish an endowment fund and help create sustainability for their organizations.  The Columbus Foundation offers access to our charitable gift annuity programs to those who have organization endowment funds where the remaining portion of the gift annuity can benefit your organization. Nonprofits can also receive income distributions on a semiannual or annual basis from their endowment fund.
  
  
• Greatest Needs Fund addresses the evolving needs of greater central Ohio during your lifetime and beyond. Grants from unrestricted funds are awarded on a competitive basis through applications from local nonprofit that are researched and evaluated by The Columbus Foundation’s grants management team.
  
  
• Supporting Foundations are separate foundations that offer a perfect opportunity for individuals, families, and companies interested in contributing larger amounts to promote family involvment, provide a distinct identity, and flexible investment objectives.
  

Our annual report offers even more details on how charitable giving works through The Columbus Foundation and how donors make an impact through their giving.

To learn more, please e-mail our Donor Services and Development team, dsd@columbusfoundation.org. To get to know our Donor Services team, click to view their bios page.