Endowed funds provide nonprofit organizations with a permanent and growing source of revenue, create an attractive repository for major and planned gifts and demonstrate the strength and stability of these organizations and their long-term commitment to their missions.

The Community Foundation, in managing Agency Endowment Funds, assumes the responsibility for:

• Legal administration of the Fund.
• Receiving and processing additional assets for the Fund.
• Managing the investment of the Fund assets.
• Reinvesting Fund assets.
• Preparing and filing all tax returns.
• Scheduling and conducting an annual audit.
• Providing periodic investment statements of principal and available income
• Distributing earnings to or for an agency for the benefit of its programs.
• Collaborating with an agency in connection with the agency's planned giving program.

The Community Foundation offers a package of services designed to help a nonprofit organization achieve its long-term goals by helping to:

• Preserve a significant amount of capital;
• Attract more and larger endowment donations; and
• Grow the endowment over time through professional investment management.

This provides all the benefits of an endowment, plus the advantages of associating with The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation and our assets of more than $12 million. Foremost among these is the reliability and security of entrusting your endowment to professionals.

Professional Investment Services:

We have already applied our expertise to researching investment vehicles that are appropriate for long-term investment. The investments we have identified balance equity protection with growth and income. Our Investment Committee and staff regularly monitor all of the Foundation's investments and makes adjustments when dictated by market conditions. When an organization's endowment assets are combined in the investment pool at The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, it instantly gains economies of scale, such as lower investment expenses, full diversification of assets and professional independent investment consulting.

We also provide:

Additional Services:

An endowment protects capital by limiting access to it. Often, this is a major consideration for donors to the endowment funds. The options chosen within the Fund agreement, however, build in flexibility to suit organizational needs. The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation offers these additional services to help market and sustain organizational endowment funds established here:

• Technical Assistance and Training for Board and Staff
• Personalized Gift Acknowledgements and Tax Receipts
• On-line contributions through www.oprfcf.org
• Pledge Management and Reminders
• Press Releases
• Recognition in The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation Annual Report
• Fundraising/Marketing Brochure Production
• Planned Giving Services and
• Opportunities for Matching Funds to Build Endowments

For example, through our recent Making a Good Gift Better Program, thirteen participating organizations received a total of $572,908 in contributions to new or existing endowments.

 We continue to seek and to link resources from the community to the building of permanent endowments that benefit the organizations and the work they do.

Call us to learn more: 708-848-1560 or e-mail our Executive Director, Sophia Lloyd at: slloyd@oprfcf.org