How Does a Community Foundation Work?

The Internal Revenue Service allows community foundations to provide certain necessary community services while remaining exempt from taxation.  Those services include the creation of funds for charitably inclined donors, help for non-profit organizations, and donations to the community-at-large.  More than 600 community foundations nationwide serve their individual regions.

Community foundations like the Vandalia-Butler Foundation, which is a component fund family of The Dayton Foundation, structure permanent and temporary funds.

The foundations provide donors with important information about the community and its needs.  They also provide services like charitable check writing and the chance to make donations immortal through endowment funds.  Because only a portion of the interest earned from an endowment fund is distributed, the balance remains safe and permanent, providing peace of mind because gifts will have lasting results.

Community foundations also offer technical assistance to non-profit organizations, as well as a source of funds for both their special and emergency needs.

Community foundations serve the community-at-large.  Communities with strong leadership realize that finding donors with a charitable vision who want to give something back to their community should never be left to chance.  Foundations provide a way for communities to "take care of their own" and ensure that there will always be available resources, when needed.