One way in which we carry out our mission to match philanthropic interests with community needs is through partnering with nonprofits and donor advisors in order to increase the grant resources available to our community.

Donor Advised Grants are made from funds established at the Community Foundation by individuals, families or groups. When a donor-advised fund is established, it becomes part of the Community Foundation’s assets and the person or group establishing the fund has the right to recommend grants from that fund, subject to review by Community Foundation staff and the approval of the board.

As Community Foundation staff work with donors and get to know their philanthropic interests, we contact them periodically to tell them about programs, projects or specific proposals that match their particular interests. For example, staff routinely review Letters of Intent in our competitive grant programs and forward selected letters to fund advisors, offering them the opportunity to partner with the Community Foundation’s unrestricted grantmaking. Through this process, donor advisors are given exposure to grantmaking opportunities they would not otherwise have and the amount of funds available to support competitive grants is increased.

In addition to our competitive grant programs, the Community Foundation is interested in exploring opportunities to partner with local nonprofits and fund advisors. We invite contact from charitable organizations serving Sonoma County that have a program or project that may be of interest to donor advisors, especially in the following areas:

•  projects that nonprofits consider to be especially strong examples of the best work they are doing in a given area;

•  projects that break new ground, or those that redefine standards, as well as those that are a significant advance over current practice or capacity;

•  projects that bring resources to issues that are important in our community that have not previously been addressed locally; or,

•  opportunities to leverage grants received by local organizations from outside funding sources involving projects that will have a significant impact on a local issue.

These examples are not intended to exclude other possibilities. In our experience, they are the kind of projects that fund advisors may find stimulating and thus can encourage their interest in both the issues involved and the organizations requesting support.