What are they?

A popular alternative to a private foundation, a supporting organization at the California Community Foundation can facilitate your family’s charitable activities without the administrative hassles and management burdens of a separate family foundation.

Through affiliation with the community foundation, your supporting organization obtains public charity tax status while maintaining a separate identity, its own specific mission and purpose defined by your board and an independent, active role in the nonprofit community.

Your supporting organization will be a separate entity with its own identity (it may have its own letterhead, brochures and Web site). As board members, your family maintains active participation in the supporting organization’s management and grantmaking.

Typically, the board of your supporting organization consists of five or seven members with the majority appointed by the California Community Foundation. Our goal is to appoint individuals who will most ably assist your supporting organization’s philanthropic goals.

Supporting organizations are best suited for initial gifts of at least $1 million.

Highlights

• Your supporting organization avoids burdensome IRS regulations and receives favorable tax benefits that are unavailable to private foundations.
• The California Community Foundation will assist in the creation of your supporting organization’s grantmaking mission and focus, structure a grant application and review process, evaluate grants made and publicize its activities.
• We provide ongoing professional staffing and administration to your supporting organization, including accounting and filing of all required reports.
• You may choose to pool your supporting organization’s assets with the California Community Foundation’s $800 million in assets, or have your own investment policy.
• Our existing administrative and grantmaking infrastructure enables your supporting organization to make an immediate community impact.

Click here to view a chart comparing supporting organizations to private foundations.

To learn more about supporting organizations, please contact Vice President of Philanthropic Services Peter Dunn or Director of Gift Planning Carol Bradford at (213) 413-4130.