Create a personalized giving plan that’s right for you and your family.

NCCF is an ideal place to set up a charitable fund that offers maximum flexibility with a community foundation that offers personalized and impactful ways to make a difference in your community today, and for generations to come. NCCF's 300+ charitable funds are as distinctive and individualized as the caring individuals, families and organizations that created them. We make it simple to establish a tax-deductible fund without any set-up costs.

By answering a few simple questions, we can help you get started:

What are you Passionate About?

Giving back is in your DNA – and ours. We all have that special thing that resonates in our hearts. It could be something that touched us or a loved one, anything from an affliction to a special enrichment opportunity— a passion for land conservation or animal welfare; or a wish to support your community and help neighbors who are less fortunate—a deserving student or a homeless child.

The first step in setting up a charitable fund is identifying whom or what you want to support. We are happy to serve as a resource on community needs and the charitable vehicles that can best serve those needs.

What Do you Want to Give?

You are free to use almost any kind of asset to launch your NCCF charitable fund: cash, publicly traded securities, closely held stock, interests in limited partnerships, real estate, life insurance, personal property or private foundation assets.

What is your Fund Type?

NCCF offers several types of charitable funds to help you fulfill your goal. Each type provides its own set of benefits and opportunities based on your charitable giving needs.

Donor-Advised Funds are for those who want to give now and enjoy being an active participant in their charitable giving. You recommend grants to qualified nonprofits in the U.S. or abroad, whenever you wish. Grants can be made in your name, your fund name, or anonymously. It’s your choice. We make sure nonprofits are vetted, create grants, process payments, and manage grant reporting. You experience all of the joy of giving with none of the administration. What could be better?

You maintain ongoing advisory involvement. You can name your children, or anyone else, as additional or successor advisors to your fund. You can even create a Donor-Advised Fund and for an unspecified period of time with a donor advisor. In the future, the donor advisor can convert the fund to a Field-of-Interest, Designated, or Unrestricted Fund.

Complete the Donor-Advised Fund Worksheet

Community Catalyst Funds
When you establish a Community Catalyst Fund, you are making a powerful statement about your philanthropy. These funds target a broad range of local needs — including future needs that often cannot be anticipated at the time your gift is made. Because Community Catalyst fund grants are awarded competitively, in perpetuity, they demonstrate a donor’s foresight and wisdom by empowering NCCF's nonprofit program experts to support long-term solutions; respond quickly to emergencies; and meet changing social, cultural, educational, or environmental needs in our local community and beyond. Grants are made in the name of your
fund, creating an everlasting legacy of goodwill for you or your family.

Complete the Community Catalyst Fund Worksheet

Field of Interest Funds support charitable efforts in specific areas of interest. You specify that grants be made within a field of interest: homelessness, education, or conservation. Field of Interest funds are limited only by your imagination.

Establishing a Field-of-Interest Fund is a great way to support the causes you care about without having to identify specific nonprofits you want to receive grants. Grants from your fund will focus on your passion, program area, community need—youth food insecurity, environmental protection, gender equity, the arts or even geographical focus. Like Community Catalyst funds, grants are awarded through competitively through an open selection process.

Complete the Field of Interest Fund Worksheet

Designated Funds award grants to your choice of specific nonprofits. Choose one or many: your church, an animal rescue society, a homeless shelter, a children’s support group. A Designated Fund allows you to support the mission of specific nonprofit organization(s). Because grants from these funds are given through the NCCF, the organizations chosen not only receive predictable annual distributions, but also planned giving, investment management services and the power of an endowment.

Nonprofits benefiting from designated funds must demonstrate fiscal responsibility with their grants. NCCF monitors the performance of the organization to make sure grants are being used as intended. If an organization ceases to exist, NCCF's Board redirects grants to a like organization with a similar mission unless otherwise directed by your fund agreement.

Complete the Designated Fund Worksheet


Scholarship Funds support educational purposes. These funds are a vital resource enable students to realize their dreams. You can support students attending a specific educational institution or pursuing specific courses of study. Establish a scholarship fund that provides financial support for a specific field of study, for graduates of specific schools, for use at specific educational institutions, and/or in recognition of achievements and based on financial need.

NCCF manages a robust online scholarship application system that connects qualifying students with scholarships—from announcing their availability, to processing and scoring applications, to awarding the funds, while permitting you to remain involved with certain aspects of the selection process. A scholarship fund is a wonderful way to publicly express your educational values or those educational values exemplified by your loved ones or place of business.

Complete the Scholarship Fund Worksheet

Agency Funds–Funds Established by Nonprofits

Agency Funds are established by nonprofits to support their charitable needs. NCCF handles the management and stewardship of the charitable assets to enable a stable source of revenue for your nonprofit at a low cost. This frees the nonprofit and its board of directors to concentrate on the pursuit of the nonprofit’s charitable mission.

Complete the Agency Fund Worksheet

Endowed or Not Endowed?

An endowment is a permanent fund. Endowment funds are pooled for maximum benefit and invested to achieve long-term capital growth. Contributions are irrevocable and become NCCF assets, subject to the conditions you set forth at the outset. Non-Endowment funds have no permanent principal balance and are immediately available for grant distribution, also at your direction.

Endowed funds protect the long-term value of the fund by balancing principal protection with grant spending. Imagine a savings account that supports your favorite cause or nonprofit forever, in your name. By limiting the spending every year to roughly 5-1/2%, in good times and bad, the principal is preserved, and so is your legacy.

Non-endowed funds allow for more flexibility. These funds are invested in the same pool as endowed funds. Like endowed funds, the principal balance is protected, but they are not limited to a 5-1/2 percent grant spending policy.

Pass-through funds are non-endowed funds. They offer the most flexibility in spending. Pass-through funds are held in a money market account. They have no minimum or maximum balance requirements.

When Do you Want to Start Giving?

Do you want to establish a fund today and witness the impact immediately? Or, would you like to plan a gift through your will, insurance policy or another charitable vehicle. Our staff is here to work with you, your family, and your professional advisor to help determine how you can best achieve your charitable goals while maximizing tax benefits.

Life-income gifts, such as Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, Charitable Gift Annuities enable you to provide financially for yourself or your loved ones while planning for future charitable giving. Your assets remain with you and your family until they are no longer needed and then they are passed to NCCF to fulfill your charitable goals.

Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs) provide income for you or a family member for a fixed number of years then the balance is transferred to NCCF to be used toward your charitable goals.

Charitable Lead Trusts (CLTs) provide regular distributions of income to your NCCF fund for a period of years. Once that time period has passed, the principal is returned to you (Grantor Lead Trust) or passed on to a beneficiary, such as a family member (Non-Grantor Lead Trust). In addition to the principal, CLT Non-Grantor Lead Trust beneficiaries receive asset growth in excess of the regular charitable distributions free of additional gift or estate tax.

Charitable Gift Annuities (CGAs) also provide financially for you or your loved ones while planning for future charitable giving; but, a gift annuity will provide income to you or a loved one for life beginning at age 65. The balance is then transferred to NCCF to be used toward your charitable goals.

The tax benefits of CRTs, CLTs and CGAs include reductions in income tax, capital gains, and estate tax liabilities.

Bequests are one of the most popular options in charitable giving. Leaving a legacy provision in your Will enables you to contribute to your NCCF fund without diminishing your assets during your lifetime; and, any gift you make is tax deductible from your estate. You may choose to leave a fixed amount of money or a specific piece of property or donate residual assets of your estate.

A gift to NCCF through your will or living trust can be used to establish or support one of many kinds of funds. It can be designated to benefit a particular area of charitable interest, a specific charitable organization(s) or a specific geographic area.

Life Insurance Policies are a great tool for giving. You can name NCCF as the beneficiary of your policy and continue to make annual tax-deductible contributions to cover the policy's annual premium. If the policy is fully paid, you will receive an immediate tax deduction in an amount equal to the policy's cash surrender value.

As a form of giving, charitable bequests provide the flexibility to be changed at any time during your life and may be made in memory or in honor of loved ones or established as a charitable legacy for yourself. You can create a named fund through your bequest or give anonymously.

Because the savings in state and federal death taxes resulting from a gift to NCCF can be dramatic, your charitable bequest can benefit your family’s inheritance, while supporting your community. Through a bequest to NCCF, you can improve the quality of life for countless people in your community. And, NCCF will act as a steward for the gift, ensuring that your charitable interests will be carried out.

NCCF offers many fund types to choose from, and all of these funds can be established as endowed, non-endowed, or pass-through. You can make donations to existing funds or start your own. We can help you maximize your financial support of causes that are important to you and your family. Donors have several choices, each designed to meet individual philanthropic goals. Named or anonymous funds can be established with an irrevocable gift of $5,000 or more, $10,000 or more for scholarships.

Gifts can be in the form of cash, publicly traded securities, closely held stock, insurance, real estate, retirement plans, or other marketable assets. Funds may be established through an immediate or planned gift through a Will, a trust, an annuity, or a business succession plan. You can establish your fund to match the amount of time you’d like the fund to carry on your philanthropic goals, ranging from making use of all of your philanthropic resources immediately, or creating a fund that supports your goals in perpetuity.

Set a spending level for you fund, for flexible spending for years to come.

What's in a Name?

Know that your fund can carry any name you choose. Should you prefer anonymity, you can select a name that reflects your charitable purpose(s) and we will protect your identity from the public and/or grantees. Alternatively, a fund name can be part of a storied legacy – and can connect you and your family to recognizable community achievements in perpetuity. Our NCCF team stands ready to assist you, your family, and your advisors in creating tailored solutions to meet your philanthropic needs today and into the future.