As a professional advisor, you have the opportunity to help your clients achieve their philanthropic goals as effectively as possible. Charitable giving, which offers specific tax benefits, gives you a unique vehicle to help your clients achieve other financial, personal, or business goals.

The Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland can be a resource for you and a philanthropic partner for your clients. It is a vehicle through which individuals, families, companies, and charitable organizations can make gifts, current or deferred, to benefit their community. The Foundation is both permanent and flexible, thus assuring donors that the spirit of their gifts will endure.

Although The Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland is a public charity, it does not promote only one charitable cause. Instead, its mission is to build and hold a permanent and growing endowment for the community's changing needs and to honor the intentions of the donors who create that endowment. Through this unique mission, The Foundation can help your clients achieve goals in ways not available through other organizations.

Community foundations are designed to accommodate the special concerns of each donor. The donor, through a gift or bequest, establishes a permanent, named fund within The Foundation's endowment. Depending on the charitable goals of the donor, grant distributions from the fund may be for broad or specific purposes. The donor may even participate with The Foundation through advice concerning the selection of grantees. The fund is continually recognized in The Foundation's annual reports and identified to the charitable organizations that receive distributions from the fund.

Of major importance to legal and financial advisors, community foundations provide an attractive, cost-effective alternative for a client who wants to establish a private foundation. The client/donor gets superior tax advantages and freedom from annual reporting requirements but can retain the right to advise on grant recipients from his or her fund.

For more information, contact The Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland at 863/683-3131.