Giving
If you care about the Caribbean, you can make a difference. And the Caribbean Community Foundation will help you make your contribution even bigger, better . . . and exactly according to your wishes.
Professional Management and Fiscal Integrity: The CCF welcomes contributions from individuals, families, and organizations. We work with you, and with any advisors, to design personalized programs for practically any charitable purpose. You can depend on professionalism in all aspects of the foundation’s work: selection of projects, investment decisions, administration, and tax issues. An independent audit helps management maintain fiscal responsibility.
How We Help
Your gift can be part of life-changing solutions for Caribbean people. The CCF board and staff provide experienced, impartial, and independent administration, conserving donors’ personal time and resources while assuring that donors’ interests are achieved. The foundation also has the flexibility to adapt to new challenges and opportunities as the community changes. We help donors and their professional advisors by:
- assisting in gift planning and philanthropy of all types
- managing philanthropic funds
- assessing needs and identifying charitable and grant opportunities
- making grants which meet donors’ philanthropic goals
- developing corporate giving programs
Endowment Options
You have many possibilities for creating endowments. Our professionals are pleased to work with contributors and their personal financial advisors to meet charitable objectives and secure tax advantages. Inquiries from attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors, and trust officers are welcomed. Donors may advise how their gift is to be used, subject to the final discretion and control of the Board of Directors of CCF, or they may entrust all or part of that decision to the board of directors.
Unrestricted Funds
Unrestricted gifts are held in perpetuity, producing annual income to meet Caribbean priorities as they arise. The foundation awards these funds to organizations through its grants program, following careful review by staff, community leaders, and the board of directors.
Field-of-Interest Funds
Donors can create a fund to benefit organizations working in a specific field or addressing a particular issue.
Donor-Advised Funds
Contributors can create a fund from which they recommend the distributions, reflecting CCF mission and goals. The foundation administers the funds. If donors desire, foundation staff can evaluate or recommend the grantees. All expenditures, grants and gifts are subject to the final authority and approval of the Board of Directors.
Scholarship Funds
Many contributors create endowed scholarship funds to honor or memorialize an individual or serve a particular educational goal. Scholarships enable students to pursue traditional higher education or vocational training.
Agency Endowments
Nonprofit organizations can establish their own endowment funds to be held and managed by the foundation, which makes regular reports and distributions to the agency.
Legacies
A permanent fund may be established in a family’s name, in memory of a loved one or friend, or on behalf of an organization. Contributions provide benefits to the community in perpetuity.
Recognition or Anonymity
A fund can be publicly recognized or anonymous according to a donor’s wish.
Ways to Give
Making a gift to the Caribbean Community Foundation can be as simple as writing a check or as sophisticated as crafting an estate plan. Options include:
Outright gifts: The foundation accepts gifts of cash, stocks and bonds, real estate, insurance, and other marketable assets.
Deferred gifts: Charitable giving can play an important role in financial and estate planning, offering many attractive options for philanthropic and tax objectives. These vehicles include charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, and gifts of life insurance, as well as bequests made through a will or trust document.
Tax Advantages
Gifts to the CCF receive maximum tax advantages for income, gift, and estate tax purposes. Creating a fund is a simple procedure, and since the foundation is a public charity, the fair market value of such gifts is tax deductible. In general, community foundations combine the tax advantages of a public charity with the lasting quality of a private foundation. Gifts of cash and ordinary income property are deductible up to 50% of adjusted gross income, compared with 30% for a private foundation. Gifts of appreciated property can be credited for 30%, rather than 20%. Also, there are no excise tax or pay-out requirements for community foundations.
