Partner Endowed Fund

CCCF offers nonprofit organizations looking to start an endowment or move assets to a revenue generating investment account. With a low minimum initial contribution, we can help you start the process of creating an operating endowment for your program.

Policies and Information

• Nonprofit Agency Endowment Fund Guidelines

• FAQs on Endowed Funds

Interested? Contact Betsy at betsy@chaffeecommunity.org. or 719-204-4565 to set up a meeting to discuss your options.

Frequently Asked Questions on Nonprofit Agency Endowment Funds

Minimum to Start: $10,000

Timeline: 5-10 business days to ensure transfer of funds after agreement is signed. Funds would transfer to CCCF's account and then be transferred to Pershing Investments. A Fund would be created in CCCF's fund accounting system and monthly reports are provided to the designated fund advisor on the fund changes. You will have login access to view the fund at any time. 

Fund Advisor: The Board can elect a fund advisor. This person will receive regular reports and be the point of contact on the fund. Typically this is the Board Treasurer, Board Chair or Executive Director. 

Fees: The applicable fees include the management fee charged by the investment agency (.75%) and a 1.5% fee collected by CCCF. These fees are assessed annually and charged monthly.

Investment Choices: Your funds would be invested along with CCCFs investment strategy which is a balanced risk investment approach. I can double check if this has changed, but once an amount reaches the $500,000 threshold is when Pershing would consider separate investment strategies. 

Funds: Your funds and their respective gains/losses would be tracked separately in a fund within CCCFs accounting system. The investment account is a single account containing various funds. 

The Brokerage Firm: We use Mason Investments. They specialize in Community Foundations and are familiar with the concept of partner funds. 

Withdrawals/Deposits: While these can be made at any time (the fund is not permanently endowed), the intent of the investment option is to create a permanent resource for partner agencies. Therefore, requests for withdrawals of the principal balance are required by written request of the board of directors. This allows for organizations to access their funds in times of financial crisis, but sets the expectation that this is a long term strategy. The board can decide (and update at any time) if they would like the investment revenue to be reinvested into the fund to increase the principal, or to be distributed to the organization. 

Deposits can be made at any time and will take 5-10 business days to appear in the investment account. 

Tax Considerations: Entities organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code are generally exempt from most forms of federal income tax, which includes income and capital gains tax on stock dividends and gains on sales. However, CCCF cannot give tax advice and recommend you check in with your tax advisor to confirm any implications for you. 

Language on Control of Funds: You may notice that the agreement indicates CCCF has full control of the funds once deposited. That is standard language around gifts to community foundations that allows deposits to be considered tax deductible and gives CCCF the permission to transfer the funds into the investment account. This does not mean that CCCF can take the funds and use them for anything we want. We are legally held to donor intent. If the donor donates this with the intent of creating an investment account, we legally have to honor that or return the gift. Similarly in the case of a donor making a stock donation for the Emergency Response Fund; CCCF takes control to transfer the stock to cash, but can't just spend it on anything we want. It needs to go into the Emergency Response Fund.