Since 1988, the Community Foundation of Greater Flint has helped donors just like you make their philanthropy convenient, effective, and enduring. Whether you want to award grants in the name of a loved one, support your favorite nonprofit, or give together as a family, we can meet your needs.

Establishing a fund with us is the best way to build a lasting legacy for Flint and Genesee County. We’re here to help you establish the perfect fund to achieve your philanthropic goals.

We make sure the nonprofit you want to support meets tax and legal requirements. We also send out the check and follow up on how the money was spent. Endowed funds make grants for good, forever. Your generosity, and your legacy, endures for generations to come.

We’re the professionals who allow your dollars to do the most good, right where you live.

Types of Funds

A Designated Fund allows you to support one or more specific charitable organizations for a set period of time or in perpetuity.

The organizations you designate are monitored by our team to ensure your grant dollars are used in an optimal manner and the manner that you intended. Should the designated organization, or the purpose it served, cease to exist or change, the fund’s income is redirected to maintain your charitable intent.

With a designated fund, you don’t have to worry about remembering to make grants each year. Your fund is set up to award annual grants to your favorite organizations.

Donor Advised Funds allow the donor to recommend grants to specific nonprofit organizations (must be a public charity and subject to approval by the Community Foundation of Greater Flint’s Board of Trustees). The original donor may also determine what the purpose of the fund will be after the donor’s death or may appoint future advisors (successor advisors) who will advise on its distribution annually.

  • Donor/advisor recommends grants to any 501(c)(3) in the United States, approval required by the Community Foundation of Greater Flint Board
  • Grant checks cut upon request
  • Ability to distribute grants from income to minimum required fund balance
  • No minimum payout
  • Expertise of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint staff available for consultation

Field of Interest Funds provides grants within the overall direction of the donor’s areas of interest. This type of fund allows donors to support a broad area of concern. For example, a donor may be interested in having the fund address grantmaking that benefits children, the arts, or the elderly.

Specific charities would not be named, but all grants from the fund would be directed toward programs that address the field of the donor’s interest within Genesee County.

Scholarship Funds benefit students throughout Genesee County. Most frequently, donors establish funds that assist high school seniors seeking post-secondary education. There are also funds that focus on college, graduate or technical school students who are pursuing specific areas of interest. The donor may specify eligibility criteria for selection. A selection committee, which may include the donor, is established to screen applicants and award scholarships.

Unrestricted funds are those from which the Community Foundation of Greater Flint has complete discretion in grantmaking. They provide flexible permanent resources for the future unknown needs of community well-being. The flexibility of your unrestricted gift enables your community foundation's program experts to respond to the community's most pressing needs, today, and tomorrow.