Many Fulton businesses are very charitable. They might be interested in creating a way that they could give to the community year after year, regardless of how well the business is doing at the time. Investing some money today and over the next two years could provide a Fulton business with a way to give monetary grants to charities every year. Fulton’s community foundation, FACE, is making it easier for a business in Fulton to accomplish this. FACE is lowering the hurdle to establish a business endowment by offering additional incentives.
Here’s how it works: Instead of opening a business endowment with the full amount, a business could start building its business endowment with a gift of at least $5000 before the end of this year. The business would then be expected to add at least another $2500 in both 2015 and 2016, so that the fund reaches at least $10,000 by the end of 2016.
The endowment would start providing about $450-$500 annually for the business to distribute to local charities. This program is designed to provide annual distributions permanently.
The additional incentives come in the form of $1000 in grants that this business will be able to give out across 2015 and 2016–without spending a dime of its own growing endowment. Instead, those grant dollars will come from FACE’s funds via a supporting grant from the D.S. Flikkema Foundation. In both 2015 and 2016 this business would be able to present one $500 or two $250 grants to the Fulton charities of its choice because of these incentives.
Any business interested in learning more about how to create a business endowment fund should contact FACE’s executive director, Connie Koehn, at 815-589-2646 or FACEacommunityfoundation@gmail.com.
Remember this offer ends on December 31, 2014. FACE is one of 13 community foundations in Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa affiliated with the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend, in Bettendorf, IA.