Why Work With a Community Foundation

Your clients have dreams and resources, but their time is precious. They want to invest in organizations they care about, but they aren't always sure how to get started—or how to have an impact. A Donor Advised Fund might be a smart choice, but there are hundreds of providers from which to choose. Why work with the Napa Valley Community Foundation?

Service. We can help your clients customize a giving approach that achieves their philanthropic goals and includes the bigger financial, tax or estate planning picture in which they operate with you. We sometimes describe ourselves as private bankers for philanthropy because we are committed to working as part of a team that includes you and other advisors, and because we provide highly personalized services to our donors.

Local knowledge & impact. We have in-depth knowledge of Napa County’s charitable organizations, their leadership, programs and projects. We also know how to give away money effectively, which sounds easy but isn’t—especially as your clients seek to increase their charitable distributions. Our knowledge is based on our own research, site visits, due diligence on grants, plus hundreds of hours each year spent in meetings around Napa County with community leaders, nonprofit executives and other donors.

Leverage. Philanthropic dollars invested through the Community Foundation often travel further, because they are pooled—at your client’s option—with funds from other donors. By coordinating the efforts of many givers, we share risk and multiply impact. Even better: We create positive change more quickly than a series of unconnected, smaller grant distributions. Leverage also influences fund administration. The Community Foundation has one balance sheet, one Board of Directors, one investment policy, one tax return and one staff of professionals, but dozens of donors who share these things. Economies of scale are critical to what we do.

Simplicity. Philanthropy is important work, but it doesn't need to be hard work. For some people, creating and running a private family foundation is a great way to pursue their charitable dreams. For others, a Fund at the Community Foundation is a more appropriate choice: It creates a vehicle for giving without the legal and administrative requirements of a separate foundation. We value simplicity because our goal is to make your client’s giving easy, effective and enduring.

Complexity. We are uniquely equipped to accept complicated gift assets such as unencumbered residential, commercial or vineyard property; shares of a privately held family business; or certain limited partnership and LLC interests. The marriage of simple giving vehicles like Donor Advised Funds with complicated gift assets like real estate can be of particular benefit to some clients. Especially when you consider that long-term capital assets (other than publicly-traded securities) go into a private family foundation at cost basis, not fair market value.