CICF Launches No-Minimum Donor-Advised Funds

by Sarah Weaver, JD,
senior gift planning advisor at CICF

On Tuesday, Oct. 1, at the annual professional advisor seminar, Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) and its affiliates, The Indianapolis Foundation and Hamilton County Community Foundation, announced that we are eliminating the minimum requirement to open a donor-advised fund. With our new mission of equitable opportunity, it was time to rethink philanthropy and what it means to be a philanthropist. We want to partner with everyone interested in giving back to their community, so donor-advised funds can now be established with any amount in order to make charitable giving more equitable, accessible and fulfilling.

Requiring $25,000 as the minimum balance to start a donor-advised fund excluded a large portion of our community. Even commercial donor-advised fund products typically have a $5,000 minimum balance requirement. At CICF, your clients can start a fund at whatever amount is comfortable and possible for them.

We’re also catching up with the times technologically—your clients can now open their donor-advised fund online. The online form should take just a few minutes to complete, and a member of the CICF development team will be in touch within two business days to finalize the fund agreement. Of course, for your more traditional clients, we are always happy to meet in person or by phone to discuss their options and get their fund set up.

All fund holders at CICF are provided access to their fund through our online donor portal, CICF Connect, where they can check their fund balance, recommend grants and take advantage of specially curated—and thoroughly vetted—funding opportunities suggested by the CICF community leadership team. No other provider of donor-advised funds can offer this level of expertise and connection to our community.

The annual administrative fee for all donor-advised funds is 1% of the fund balance, with a minimum annual fee of $250, and is tiered for funds with a balance in excess of $1,000,000. These fees fund the work of CICF. Unlike commercial donor-advised funds, our fees stay local and are invested back into our community.

As your clients contemplate their year-end charitable giving, keep us in mind. If you regularly recommend commercial donor-advised fund products, consider including CICF’s donor-advised funds among those offerings. We are here to make you successful, and a no-minimum donor-advised fund with CICF is one more tool you can provide to your clients.

If you have any questions, please contact: