Donating to a charity or nonprofit directly can certainly make a difference. However, by establishing funds through your local community foundation for your favorite charities and causes, you can make an even greater impact and sustain your charitable giving long after you are gone.

A community foundation can help protect your charitable dollars and your interests. As time goes on, unexpected circumstances can arise. A charity may shift its focus or change its mission, suffer from mismanagement, or even cease its existence, in which case your donation would not be used in the best possible way — or even used at all. However, when you allocate funds to a charity or organization through a community foundation, you can be assured that the foundation will take care of your funds in the way you intended by applying the variance power. No matter what happens, your community foundation is there to safeguard your gift, enabling you to support the causes you care about into perpetuity.

In addition, the community foundation can pool and leverage resources with those of other donors in the area who have similar goals and interests, allowing your gift to do even more good than it would on its own as a direct donation. They are also able to process complex gifts that a charity might not otherwise be able to accept.

Learn more about the flexible giving options and distinct benefits provided by community foundations. You can also speak directly to a knowledgeable community foundation professional using the contact information provided in the online directory of Kansas community foundations.