News
Endowing Athens
A Message from AACF Board Chair, Judge Steve C. Jones
When I began working with Partners for a Prosperous Athens, our plan was to tackle poverty. However, I had no idea that this community would attempt to change the manner in which it responds to all critical community needs now and into the future. But, that is exactly what OneAthens called for in the community foundation initiative. Knowing that poverty is only one of many issues our community must have the resources to respond to, the recommendation to start a community foundation was a bold and forward-looking move. We felt that our name needed to reflect the all-encompassing nature of community foundations and, at the end of the summer, our Board changed the name to the Athens Area Community Foundation (AACF). Over the coming months and years, we will establish AACF as an entity that is not here to be in charge of OneAthens nor to raise money solely for poverty reduction or any single community cause. Our citizens have asked us to serve a larger function: AACF will help donors and nonprofits improve the quality of life and economic well-being -- for all people in Athens and our neighboring counties - Oconee, Barrow, Jackson, Madison, and Oglethorpe.
A community foundation improves the lives of current area residents and generations to come by building a “community endowment,” making grants to nonprofits, and providing leadership on vital issues. In one survey of the nation’s community foundations, the median community foundation endowment was $73 million.
For AACF, success will require three things: Community Investment, Stewardship, and Accountability.
Community Investment:
A community foundation’s strength lies in remaining flexible to meet the arising needs of a community. While building economic prosperity for everyone is core to AACF’s mission, the community foundation will be a tax-deductible 501c3 vehicle for donors and nonprofits to increase quality of life through causes from the Arts to Zoology. We want the community to see AACF as a resource for as many missions as there are needs. We are a resource for all donors and nonprofits, not just those who participated in the Partners for a Prosperous Athens process.
This fall, AACF will begin helping donors create Funds to turn their charitable goals into permanent legacies. AACF will be a “large umbrella” for multiple Funds with varying degrees of focus/restriction based on the charitable wishes of their donors. Individuals, families, nonprofits and businesses may establish endowed charitable Funds at the foundation and recommend grants to the nonprofit groups they wish to support. Benson, Inc., the parent organization of the Hilton Garden Inn, the Holiday Inn, and the Holiday Inn Express, has created the first donor advised Fund at AACF. A Donor Advised Fund allows a donor to be actively involved in grants made from their Fund and allows them, in the case of a family, to engage their children and grandchildren in grantmaking.
Community members may contribute to unrestricted Funds to AACF as well. This will allow AACF’s Board of Directors to build its discretionary grantmaking program. In spring, 2009 we hope to take in grant applications from the area’s nonprofits and make strategic investments that are in line with our mission.
Being strategic about your philanthropy is critical in this time of dwindling assets. A permanently endowed Fund at the community foundation will allow donors to set money aside to ensure that resources remain available year after year to support the causes they care most about.
Stewardship:
Building a successful community foundation requires a strong Board of Directors who are well-informed about the needs of the community and well-equipped to steward community assets in perpetuity. With our first Board of Directors, we were fortunate to have such committed community leaders as Buddy Allen, David Allen, Pat Allen, Bob Burton, Ricky Chastain, Bill Cowsert, Bill Douglas, Bertis Downs, Doc Eldridge, Robert Fezekas, Arthur Johnson, Tim Johnson, Kathy Kirbo, Jimbo LaBoon, Cheryl Legette, Janice Mathis, Helen Mills, Dink NeSmith, Jim Norton, Alex Patterson, Tom Rodgers, Regina Smith, Ovita Thornton, Grant Tribble, Joe Whorton, Carol Winthrop, and Mike Young guiding this effort.
Our task is to build an endowment, a permanent corpus of Funds, and to manage/invest it to generate resources for Athens and the surrounding counties for the future. This is a large task and I am fortunate that Red Petrovs was willing to take over as chair of OneAthens, so that I could devote my time to chairing AACF’s Board of Directors.
So far we have raised $285,000 to support operating expenses with individual Board members giving $120,100 total. We want to make sure that AACF donors will be able to give through the community foundation and not to the community foundation. This means that we will build an operating endowment so that our focus can be increasing support for the Athens area, not for AACF.
Accountability:
AACF will not only work closely with its donors, but also with the area’s nonprofits. Our goal is to help build capacity and collaboration amongst the organizations working to improve quality of life for all of us. We respect and recognize that nonprofits must get donations to remain open. Our goal is to avoid overlap in our fundraising efforts. AACF will not send out 500 letters, hold silent auctions, or have annual fund drives. These kinds of fundraisers are the bread and butter for local nonprofits and AACF will make every effort not to siphon off their contributions. Instead, AACF will be a “patient” resource for donors making decisions about discretionary assets. AACF is a tax-efficient instrument for donors to make a lasting legacy which is why it requires a $10,000 minimum to create a Donor Advised Fund and why it encourages that Funds be permanently endowed rather then used as pass through accounts.
A Community Foundation, with its endowed component Funds, ensures that 10 generations from now, the residents of Athens and surrounding counties will have philanthropic resources to meet community needs. Endowments value each generation equally by stewarding community assets “for good, forever.”
