Guest column: Your community foundation cares as much as you do

As the holidays approach, many of us think about charitable giving, either financially or by volunteering our time and talent. Perhaps you have a charity of choice or two. But what if you want to support a community, not just a few organizations? Maybe that “community” is the place where you live or work, or where you grew up, if you’ve moved around.

One of the best ways to do this is to engage with your local community foundation. They work to improve the overall quality of life in the places they serve. Many people think of foundations as organizations that raise money for a single university or hospital or, as in the case of private family foundations, for the many causes of concern to that family. Community foundations support universities and hospitals and the causes or concerns to most folks, and so much more.

Your community foundation, the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation, connects hundreds of individual and corporate donors who care about our area to the causes they want to support. We bring leaders together to address critical issues affecting our communities and partner with local charitable, educational, and cultural organizations to make our community a better place to live, work and play. We make it possible to do better together than we could ever do alone.

There are more than 1,000 community foundations around the United States; more than 34 in Illinois. There are some with assets in excess of $2 billion, and others with assets of less than $100,000. Some support a single city; others support a region or an entire state. At the SRCCF, we serve La Salle, Bureau, Putnam, Lee and some areas of Marshall and Livingston counties.

Since 2015, we have invested more than $7 million in Starved Rock Country, with over $2.64 million distributed in grants to nonprofits, scholarships to students and disaster relief funds to those in need. We have engaged with 122 fundholders who chose the SRCCF as their philanthropic partner in charitable giving.

If you’re not familiar with the SRCCF, or don’t know how much we do, you’re not alone. Providing the opportunity to learn more about community foundations is why in 1989, then-president George H.W. Bush designated Nov. 12 through Nov. 18 as Community Foundation Week.

There are several ways to support the things you care about through the SRCCF. You can make a gift of cash, real estate or stock directly to us, which will help support any number of programs and services. You can give to an array of funds we manage that support causes you care about. We have established donor-advised funds, donor-designated funds, field of interest funds, scholarships, giving circles and fiscal sponsorships to support new initiatives throughout Starved Rock Country. You can create a fund with us to support nearly any kind of cause you want. And, although some donors give large sums of money, we can help you create a fund with $1,000. We also are a great option for people who dream of creating their own foundation, but simply don’t have the knowledge, time and/or resources to do so. And, if you have your own family foundation already that needs simple guidance for giving or is no longer actively utilized, we can help with that, as well.

If you would like to have even more impact, you can connect with other donors in one of our giving circles. The Women Inspired Network has returned more than $110,000 to organizations who serve women and children. Our newest initiative, Elevate 5000, is group of local donors who pledge to make an annual gift of $5,000 to support the SRCCF.

We help you determine the best strategies to achieve your charitable goals. We work with you to match nonprofit organizations with your goals to achieve the impact you want to make. We are happy to work with your own knowledgeable financial advisor. And we can create endowment funds so that your giving can last for decades or more.

We don’t pretend to know it all, but we do know a good deal about the needs of the communities we serve. Give us a call. We’re here to help you and happy to be your partner in giving.

To learn more about the SRCCF, visit https://srccf.org; call Fran Brolley, president and CEO, at 815-252-2906; or email fran@srccf.org.

• Pamela Beckett is the co-founder of the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation.