Has anyone used a community foundation to administer grants for community development?

This may not be much help, but..

I remember reading in a CRA magazine (I think put out by the SF Fed) that there was an institition in NY that does just that. Problem is, I can't remember the name of the institution - or the supervisory agency. But there is someone out there that has done it.

Good Luck

I've seen an institution here use a Family Foundation for this sort of thing. The family sold the bank to Wells though and now operates on their own. You can probably find some information from the web on the Rasmussen Foundation in Alaska.

There are some reputable "community foundations" here in NJ that will do this..you can give them all or part of your funds, designate what types of organizations are eligible to receive your funds, and they will administer the grants, report back to you, etc. We were thinking of doing this in some new counties we are just getting into to help us break in. I have heard of some big banks doing this to save on administration...just wondered if anyone had any experience.

One thing to consider, and maybe it won't matter to you, but I look at all donations for their CRA benefit. I require that 45% of my donation/grant funds go to entities or programs which I can claim during exam. Without controll I'd never know if they qualified or not. I can't say I'd take the word of a third party as folks who are not in CRA rarely get it right and often miss great opportunities to sway funds into qualifying programs.

The investment test is a toughie for me so this is a major concern. It might not be an issue for you so perhaps you won't mind missing the opportunities but it's worth considering.

From what I understand, it is possible to give this organization strict guidelines such as must benefit LMI individuals regardless of type of entity; you can specify types of entities (housing, education, etc.) and they follow your instructions to the letter. From what I understand, a very large bank in our region turned their entire grant fund for the region over to them!

I may test the waters with a portion of the funds for one or 2 of our new counties.