Organizational Endowment Funds

 To hear more about how our nonprofit organizations have utilized The Columbus Foundation by opening an Organization Endowment fund..


With an increasing need for the services of nonprofit organizations and fewer sources of support, endowment building has become critically important. Organization endowment funds provide a safe, financially responsible outlet for protecting the economic future of a charity. More than 150 nonprofit organizations have created endowment funds through The Columbus Foundation.

This type of fund is created by the nonprofit organization as a means of protecting charitable dollars for the future of their work and their mission.  This type of fund:

  • Protects an organization’s endowed monies to meet its future needs.
  • Demonstrates the organization’s security, stability and long-term financial planning.
  • Decreases the administrative work on the organizations staff.
  • Allows the organization to take advantage of planned giving and other technical assistance offered by The Columbus Foundation.
  • Allows you to utilize our Charitable Gift Annuity program for your donors.

An Organization Endowment Fund may be opened with an initial gift of $10,000 or more. You may make this gift in cash, 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 organization itself. 

Once your fund has been 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 $1 million 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 learn more, contact a member of our Donor Services team at 614/251-4000 or 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.