Types of Funds

Helping people and organizations make a difference to the causes they care most about is what we do. We can assist you in finding the right charitable fund to meet your charitable-giving plans and that works within your family’s financial- or estate-planning needs.

Charitable Checking Accounts℠

If you make regular gifts to charity and want favorable tax benefits, the Charitable Checking Account is for you. The Dayton Foundation’s Charitable Checking Account Service is a donor-directed fund for individuals, companies and nonprofit organizations that give to charity on a regular basis and want to actively participate in the grantmaking process.

The Service allows you to combine favorable tax benefits with the flexibility to support your favorite IRS-approved charities in the Greater Dayton Region, throughout the U.S. and internationally at any time.

Community Impact Endowment Funds (Unrestricted Funds)

Unrestricted funds enable The Dayton Foundation to help address our region’s changing needs by increasing discretionary grants awards and undertaking new community initiatives. These funds are vital for the support of many local not-for-profit organizations that enhance our quality of life.

By establishing an unrestricted fund or by designating a portion of your fund for unrestricted use, you place your trust in us to use our years of experience and community knowledge to determine where grant money is needed most.

Field-of-Interest Funds

If you have a particular area of interest – such as children, education, the arts, health or the environment – but want us to use the Foundation’s knowledge to determine where community need is greatest, a field-of-interest fund can be an excellent option.

Donor-Advised Funds

With a donor-advised fund, you are actively involved in the distribution of your gifts by making periodic grant recommendations to support organizations and activities that are of interest to you.

Donor-Designated Funds

You may designate specific nonprofits or purposes to receive your gifts. This allows you optimum control over your distributions. If your designated organization ceases to exist or loses its nonprofit status, we will help choose a similar beneficiary that can best carry out your original intent.

Scholarship Funds

You may choose to encourage education by providing scholarships, based upon academic interest or other criteria, to deserving students. You also may select the guidelines for candidate selection, requirements and award use. Many such funds utilize the Foundation’s experience and capable staff support to help administer and award the scholarship.

Students and their parents also can search for available Dayton Foundation scholarships through ScholarshipCONNECT, our online scholarship directory.

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Family Foundation Plus℠

We offer several alternatives to establishing a private foundation to help you and your family accomplish your long- and short-term charitable giving goals.

The Dayton Foundation’s Family Foundation Plus is a first-in-the-nation service that offers many of the advantages of a private foundation, plus all of the benefits of a community foundation.

Supporting Organizations

Supporting Organizations are excellent alternatives to private foundations. They have their own board that makes its own decisions and have their own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS.

Supporting Organizations (frequently begun as family foundations) give donors many of the controls of a private foundation, but with fewer disadvantages, plus added advantages of public charity status.

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