A restricted fund lets you direct a gift to a specific organization or purpose. For example, you can support scholarships, or ongoing funding for a museum, house of worship, or virtually any public charity. You select the recipient and GCF will manage the annual distribution of funds – forever!
A restricted fund provides a direct way to benefit the organizations you choose. Because it’s given through GCF, your gift provides your chosen organization with secure long-term funding. If it ceases to exist or changes its mission, the fund will be redirected to something as similar as possible in order to continue to address your charitable intent, preserving your charitable interests even as times change.
These funds let you target your gift for needs in an important area of community life such as the arts, AIDS, aging, or at-risk youth. You identify your personal interest areas when making the gift and GCF’s Governing Board will award grants to community agencies and programs that are making a difference in the field you select. Your gift stays flexible enough to meet community needs in your interest area – even as they change over time.
Your area of personal interest can be as broad or narrow as you wish. Our professional staff continually monitors changing community needs so that you can be sure your fund makes the greatest impact in your field of interest and creates your personal legacy of giving.
An unrestricted fund allows you to support ever-changing community needs – including future needs that cannot be anticipated now. GCF evaluates all aspects of community well-being – Cultural Vibrancy, Economic Opportunity, Educational Success, Environmental Stewardship, Health & Wellness, Strong Communities and Job Creation.
Because you set no restrictions, our experienced staff and board can do what they do best – assess community needs and respond by awarding grants to the nonprofit organizations that undertake our community’s most critical work. Unrestricted funds help GCF to support long-term solutions, respond quickly to emergencies (like the Weathering the Economic Storm Fund), and meet changing social, cultural, educational, or environmental needs in our local community.
By definition, an endowment is a gift deposited into a fund where the original amount – called the principal – remains forever. Income earned from the fund’s investments provides the means to support your charitable interests.
So while the principal stays intact in perpetuity, the earnings from investments generate present and future income, helping to do good work forever. Typically, endowments are created for all fund categories with the exception of donor advised funds.
An endowment is your opportunity to benefit the community forever – and for your gift to live on permanently.