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Philanthropic Tools

GTCF’s philanthropic tools and expertise help you build a thriving community, now and for generations to come.

GTCF offers a wide range of philanthropic tools to help you make a difference in your community for generations to come. Choosing the tools that work best for you can be confusing. GTCF’s Philanthropic Advisors have the expertise to pair your charitable giving with the fund that will ensure the causes you care about help build a thriving community.

Designated Funds

A designated fund provides support to your favorite charitable organizations in perpetuity, or over a set number of years. With an endowed designated fund, you can be confident that your gift will provide a lasting legacy to sustain your favorite nonprofits. Should an organization you’ve designated cease to exist, GTCF will ensure that the funds are redirected to an organization meeting your charitable intent so that your generosity will continue to benefit the community in the way that you envisioned.

Designated for Capital Funds

As community movements grow from grassroots efforts toward more established community organizations, there is a middle ground where funding and transactions can be limited without a 501c3 structure to receive charitable contributions. Civic capital projects, transitioning movements, and emerging organizations can all find themselves facing barriers to growth because they lack the fiscal structure to support charitable financial transactions. To address this gap in fiscal support, GTCF’s Designated for Capital fund provides time-bound capacity for efforts to receive charitable gifts per IRS regulations, deliver funding, and pay for expenses.

Donor Advised Funds (DAFs)

A donor advised fund is a charitable giving account created by an individual or family and used to support charitable causes recommended by the donors and their successors. This option provides great flexibility for giving during your lifetime and allows you to leave the gift of philanthropy to future generations. Donor advised funds are typically quick and easy to set up. You can download a donor advised fund agreement here

Donor Advised Fund, Charity and Private Foundation Comparison
Donor Advised Fund vs. Private Family Foundation Information Sheet

Field of Interest Funds

A field of interest fund allows you to make an impact in specific fields over time. You identify a specific or broad interest area (such as education, the arts, or animal welfare) and GTCF ensures effective grantmaking within that field as the needs change over time. This type of fund allows your grantmaking to evolve as the needs within the field do, and gives you peace of mind knowing that GTCF will be there to identify the best nonprofits in the issue area you have selected to ensure your legacy lives on.

Unrestricted Funds

Establishing an unrestricted community fund (the same as an unrestricted fund) allows donors to support the most pressing and often changing needs of Pierce County, now and in the future. This allows GTCF to distribute these funds to nonprofit organizations that best serve the community’s pressing needs.

Ways to Give

Create a charitable fund
Provide grants to causes and organizations that matter most to you by starting a charitable fund.

Donate to the community
By making a gift to Greater Tacoma Community Foundation you are helping to bring together people, data and resources to address some of our communities’ most pressing challenges and most promising opportunities.

Donate to an existing fund
From the environment to the arts, there are a number of funds that you can support.
You can make a gift online to these existing funds.

Make a planned gift
Make a planned gift in the form of a bequest, charitable annuity or remainder trust. Without affecting your financial security you can either specify a dollar amount, a particular asset, or a percentage of your estate. Planned gifts are recognized with membership in GTCF’s Legacy Society.
Make a lasting impact in our community for generations by completing a Legacy Memorandum of Understanding.

Setting Up a Fund

Starting a fund at GTCF is a personalized process that helps you:

Consider what issues and organizations matter most to you
Do you care about the environment? Want to support the arts or help youth be able to afford higher education?
Decide what to give
GTCF accepts outright gifts, including cash, securities and life insurance, as well as real estate, memorial gifts, charitable remainder trusts and charitable gift annuities.
Choose the type of fund you would like to establish
Do you want to be directly involved in your grantmaking decisions? Would you prefer GTCF direct your grantmaking based on the guidelines you’ve established? 
Decide whether you would like to endow your fund
With an endowed fund we preserve the value of your gift while each year giving out a portion in charitable distributions to causes you care about.
Set up a fund
Once a fund type has been chosen, you name the fund and we complete an agreement to finalize the process and set up an account. The minimum amount to establish a fund is $10,000. Find GTCF’s Administrative Fee Schedule here.
Choose an appropriate investment option for your fund
Assets in your fund can be invested in a variety of investment options depending on the type of charitable giving timelines of your fund.
Explore GTCF’s Investment Pools here.
Externally Managed Funds are available for donors with Donor Advised Funds over $500,000.
Complex Gifts are another investment option for your fund other than cash and marketable securities.
Your philanthropic advisor at GTCF will help make the appropriate choice when investing your charitable funds.

Once a fund is established, you may:

Add to the fund at any time in any dollar amount.
Decide how to distribute funds through the grantmaking process.
Contact GTCF for assistance in learning more about the needs of our community.