The Balancing Act - Community Foundation as a Vehicle for Philanthropy, by Dorothy Reynolds

This is the second monogram in the series written by Dorothy Reynolds and published by the Mott Foundation last year - available on their website.

Here Ms. Reynolds highlights the benefits of having both donor advised funds and permanently endowed unrestricted assets and the synergy that can occur between them.  In recent years, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has experienced just such a synergy, especially when we share our grant applications for which we have insufficient discretionary funds with our donor advisors. More and more of our advisors are responding to our requests for help, thus growing our impact on community needs.

I especially appreciated this one comment: “If professional advisers understand the flexibility and stewardship of a community foundation, if they understand that the foundation is not just another charity to give to, but rather to give through, they will be comfortable discussing it with clients.”