Catalyst Fund
When you establish a catalyst (unrestricted) fund with Illinois Prairie Community Foundation, your gift will be used to address significant challenges and opportunities in the community. Each year, our program experts determine where grants from these funds can have the greatest impact. IPCF evaluates all aspects of community well-being. The flexibility of your unrestricted gift allows IPCF to respond to the most pressing needs of the community - today and tomorrow.
CATALYST FUND
Major advantages of the community foundation include its perpetual structure, community-based governance and commitment to addressing needs as they change. A Catalyst (unrestricted) fund allows you and your family to provide support that evolves over time as priorities in the region shift.
- You will be eligible for the Illinois Gives Act if you create an endowed Catalyst fund. The Act provides a 25% state tax credit for all donations to new or existing endowed funds. Contact us for more information.
- IPCF’s board and professional staff conduct ongoing, extensive research about the needs of the community and the nonprofit programs that are addressing those needs.
- Establishing a Catalyst (Unrestricted) fund means you are investing in IPCF to support programs that are addressing the community’s most pressing needs as well as needs that can’t be identified until the future.
HOW IT WORKS
Illinois Prairie Community Foundation’s professional staff will work with you to create documentation that establishes your unrestricted fund.
- You may name the fund whatever you’d like.
- You may add assets to the fund during your lifetime. In the alternative, or in addition, you may wish to make arrangements in your estate plan for the fund to receive a bequest from your will, trust or beneficiary designation following your death.
- As is the case with other contributions to community foundation funds, lifetime gifts to your unrestricted fund are eligible for an immediate income tax deduction. Assets transferred to the fund upon your death are eligible for an estate tax deduction.
HOW IS A CATALYST FUND ADMINISTERED?
The community foundation makes it easy for your organization to set aside and invest reserve funds.
- An agency fund is a cost-effective option for accessing investment options that might not otherwise be available to your organization.
- IPCF is committed to helping your organization exercise outstanding stewardship of the funds donors have entrusted to your board and staff to support your organization’s mission.
- IPCF’s staff is familiar with a wide range of planned giving structures and techniques and can serve as a sounding board for your fundraising efforts.
USING YOUR IRA TO FUND YOUR CATALYST FUND
If you own one or more IRAs, you may be eligible to make distributions up to a specific amount (according to current federal IRA guidelines) per person from those accounts directly to your scholarship fund at IPCF. This Qualified Charitable Distribution counts toward satisfying your Required Minimum Distribution while helping you avoid income tax on those funds. Plus, those assets are no longer part of your estate upon your death, so you can avoid estate taxes too. The IRS permits making QCDs to scholarship funds.
WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!
Whatever your charitable giving goals may be, our team at IPCF can help. We care about our community as much as you do. Deeply familiar with local nonprofits, we serve as a resource to help you give when, how and to the causes you want. Our tools and back-office administration capabilities make it easy to keep your giving organized and tax-savvy.