A GOOD FOUNDATION THE NEWSLETTER OF THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE
SPRING • 201 7
At your Community Foundation, no two years are the same. 2016 provided us some new opportunities to help our community and some new reasons to do so ... Even as it solidified our mantra of “helping you help others.” Here are some highlights! 1. Every employer says their most important asset is their employees - but when they plan for disasters, they focus on computers and buildings. In 2016, the services we offer employers to help their employees experiencing serious personal financial hardship, grew. In the past year, 677 applications were processed (up from 355 in 2015, an increase of 48%) and 598 families received assistance totaling $1,470,960.
2. In October, the Chancery Court gave your Community Foundation a $5 million portion of a lawsuit settlement to help enhance the capacity of organizations across the state serving the needs of Tennessee’s Seniors. These one-time funds were to be distributed by the end of 2016 to these organizations for use in serving Tennessee’s 95 counties between January 1 and mid-June 2017. Ultimately, 121 organizations received support and are on track to accomplish the tasks for which they received funding. We have created the website, ServingTennesseeSeniors.org, which contains information about the recipients and how the awards are being used.
4. Our work to stabilize the ability of quality local Early Childhood Education centers to teach children at-risk for falling behind was enhanced. We now not only offer ChildcareNashville.com as a tool for parents seeking care for their babies and for those seeking jobs in the childcare sector, and ChildcareTennessee.com as a tool for those running centers and seeking to enhance their ability to serve kids well, even while using over 1,000 resources. And now we offer the opportunity to help centers find highly trained and pre-vetted substitute teachers when necessary through a text-driven Substitute Pool software we developed, which helped fill 114 one-time positions in the final weeks of 2016.
3. In November, our friends in East Tennessee fell victim to the “perfect storm” of drought, fire, and wind, and much of Sevier County suffered. As we do, and have done since 1993, your Community Foundation mobilized to help generate donations that we could then process and forward to serve those affected. Our first $100,000 bought Dollar General gift cards for those who’d lost their homes and the contents thereof. Dollar General matched our gift, and we were able to provide each of the roughly 1,000 families $200 to replace clothing or buy diapers or provide a Christmas for their children. Our most recent grants helped nonprofits provide food (currently 1,800 bags of food per week to individual families); medical services (this organization served 20% of the county’s residents before the fires, a number that has risen) for uninsured residents of the county; and housing, transportation, and wrap-around services for those who are now homeless or on the verge of being homeless.
5. Statistics: • More new funds were established in 2016 than in any year prior.
PLANNED GIVING: WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
You plan throughout your life — everything from the day-to-day to the career choices you make to meet goals and ensure financial security for your family. Why would you need to plan a charitable gift?
• We handled over 192,000 financial transactions. • We received over 28,000 contributions.
• We made grants to over 3,600 nonprofit recipients for the third year in a row. • Online gifts given through our website CFMT.org surpassed $1 million.
• A planned gift of over $10 million established new funds designated for named charities and added to several previously established funds to address our community’s needs. Please let us know how we can help you help others in ways that matter. ELLEN LEHMAN
President, The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
There are a variety of tools you can use to make a planned gift and create a legacy through The Community Foundation. We work with you to learn about your charitable goals and create vehicles for realizing those goals through The Community Foundation’s services. For instance:
CHARITABLE BEQUEST Designate a set amount or percentage of your estate, leave your house or leave all remaining assets to The Community Foundation.
The answer involves many of the same reasons: As you decide what you want to accomplish, taking thoughtful steps will make you more successful. Planned giving comes in many shapes and sizes, and it is set up to make the most sense for you and the charitable causes close to your heart. Since The Community Foundation received its first planned gift in 1994, realized planned gifts have resulted in proceeds every year since, to create new funds or add to existing ones – ultimately, to help people give in personally meaningful ways.
CHARITABLE LEAD TRUST With a charitable lead trust, you provide income to support your charitable Fund now, for a designated period of years or for the lives of individuals. At the end of the term, substantial tax-reduced or tax-free assets are transferred to your heirs or others you designate.
IRA OR RETIREMENT PLAN ASSETS You may designate The Community Foundation as a primary or contingent beneficiary of your IRA or other retirement plan assets
People like the Fyfes, the Davises, Bonnie Bashford, V.R. Mason, and many more. Within this spring newsletter, you will read stories of generosity from those who have entrusted The Community Foundation to safeguard their charitable wishes — and did so through planned giving.
to support your charitable interests. Among other options, the IRA Charitable Rollover is easy for donors with IRAs to ‘rollover’ up to $100,000 once they reach the age of 70 1/2 to public charities without having to count the distributions as taxable income.
LIFE INSURANCE You can transfer ownership of a cash value policy during your lifetime to create or support your Fund and be eligible for an immediate tax deduction based on the policy’s current value.
For information on current gifts, such as giving stock, personal property or real estate, give us a call at (615) 321-4939. CFMT.org • 1