Designated Funds
What is a Designated Fund?
Support your favorite causes or organizations for generations to come by creating a Designated Fund. Make annual distributions to specific organizations or cause areas of your choice, based on the instructions you provide when you establish the fund.
Create a fund in your name or honor a loved one by establishing a fund in their name–or simply choose a name that is meaningful to you. It can be set up as a perpetual endowment fund or for a set period of years, granting out a percentage that you determine. Because the Minnesota Jewish Community Foundation handles the details, the nonprofit organization’s staff is freed up to focus on their mission.
Earnings from your fund are used to make grants addressing community needs, automatically or by an advisory committee of your choosing. In addition to enjoying significant tax advantages, a designated fund can connect future generations of your family to the causes that matter to you.
Take heart knowing that your legacy will be professionally managed and that your charitable intent will be fulfilled for as long as the fund exists. You can be assured that your fund will continue to invest in the success of community organizations you care so much about during or after your lifetime.
Next Steps
Contact us at foundation@mnjcf.org or by calling (952) 417-2316 to discuss using your donor advised funds to support the community through your values and our mission.
Seek the advice of your financial or legal advisor. Need a trusted professional? Find one here.
Contribute by opening a fund by using cash, appreciated assets or investments.
The Foundation invests that money with the goal of growing your charitable dollars (tax-free); so you have more to donate to your favorite causes. Invest by choosing from four investment pools offered.
Grant to your favorite charities by using our portal. You may view the grant recommendation guidelines here.
If you include MN JCF or MJF in your plans, please use our legal name and federal tax ID.
Legal name: Minneapolis Jewish Federation
Address: 4330 Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis, MN 55416
Federal tax ID number: 41-0693866
Benefits of a Designated Fund
Support an organization or cause you care about by providing a source of annual funding for a specific community need that falls within the mission of the Minneapolis Jewish Foundation.
Establish a permanent fund with a minimum of $5,000 through a gift of cash, stock, property; a legacy gift in your will, trust, or retirement plan; life insurance, charitable remainder trusts, charitable gift annuities, and retirement accounts (e.g. IRAs).
Your fund can be a meaningful way to honor or remember a loved one and to perpetuate your Jewish values long beyond your lifetime. Family and friends can donate to your fund.
Take advantage of several tax benefits by making a charitable IRA distribution. Up to $100,000 can be given every year, and many people 70 ½ or older, who must make the required minimum distribution, find this a great avenue to make donations.
All the paperwork is done for you.
It’s Your Legacy — By giving a planned gift now, you will be included in the Minneapolis Jewish Federation’s Legacy Society
You identify a purpose or organization that you wish to benefit.
You make a gift. You can give cash, appreciated stocks, real estate, or other assets, and we set up a special fund in your name or in the name of the nonprofit organization you choose.
We invest the money. The earnings from your fund are used to make grants. Our staff issues grants to the designated organization or cause.
You receive tax benefits in the year your gift is made.
Staff handles all the administrative details, including managing specific qualifications that you may establish for grant disbursements.
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How It Works
Jill and Serena are sisters whose parents supported non-profits that serve people with disabilities. After their parents passed away, they established a designated fund in their honor, which was funded by a gift from their parents’ estate. The fund specifically supports non-profits with missions focusing on people with disabilities and disability education.
Every year, the fund gives out a portion of it balance (up to 5%) in grants to non-profits and causes specified in their fund, which is approximately $50,000.
Jill and Serena chose an advisory committee of others to determine annually which organizations are funded and how much each are given. MN JCF handles all the administrative details and Jill and Serena receive tax benefits every time they add assets to the fund.
This is one example of a variety of ways a Designated Fund can be structured.
