Community Foundations

Fund Types

Donors to The Community Foundation can participate in a variety of component funds, helping them to meet their specific charitable objectives.

Acorn Funds
The Community Foundation Serving Greeley and Weld County recognize that there are families who would like to create a legacy for themselves and their community but are not in a position to give all at once the $10,000 minimum required to establish an endowed fund. The Acorn Fund concept will allow donors to grow their fund to the $10,000 level over a period of up to five years.

Donor Advised Funds
You can have ongoing involvement in the use of your gift. You work with our professional program staff, identifying ways to use dollars from the Donor Advised Fund you establish to address the issues and needs you care about most. By creating a Donor Advised Fund at the Community Foundation, you can recommend grants, name family members as advisors, even make grants anonymously if you wish.

Designated Funds
You can direct your gift to a specific nonprofit organization or purpose. Help provide ongoing funding for a senior center, museum, or virtually any nonprofit charitable organization. Nonprofit organizations can use a Designated Fund through the community foundation to build their endowment and enhance their ability to accept large and complex gifts.

Unrestricted Funds
Your gift can address ever-changing community needs - including future needs that often cannot be anticipated at the time your gift is made. We evaluate all aspects of community well-being - arts and culture, economic development, education, environment, health and human services, neighborhood revitalization, and more. The flexibility of your unrestricted gift enables your community foundation's program experts to respond to the community's most pressing needs, today and tomorrow.

Field of Interest Funds
You can target your gift to support a particular area of interest such as education, the arts, aging or community development - but not a specific agency. You identify your personal interest area when making your gift; our board awards grants to community organizations and programs that are making a difference in the area you select.

Scholarships
You can invest your gift in our community's future and show students you care, all with the guidance and personal services of your community foundation. You determine the criteria students must meet to receive the scholarship you establish. Donors may stay involved through an advisory relationship or may name an advisory committee to assist in the selection of recipients.  The Community Foundation handles the necessary paperwork and ensures that scholarships and grants are distributed in an equitable manner.

Agency Endowments
Non-profit organizations can establish an endowment fund at the Community Foundation. An endowment fund serves to protect their endowed monies to meet future needs, provide relatively constant source of annual income, and fulfill their mission in perpetuity.

Supporting Organizations
You can use your gift to establish an excellent alternative to a private foundation - with only a fraction of the administrative responsibilities. You select some of the board members, maintain personal involvement and support the causes and organizations you care about while enjoying the favorable tax treatment of a public charity. Leave investment management, startup costs, grant administration and reporting to your community foundation.

Any of these funds can be established in your name, or in the name of your family, your organization, or anyone you wish to honor. All grants distributed from the fund you establish-today and in the future-are then awarded to charities in the name of that fund. It's a great way to always be involved with, and remembered for, your community investment.