What Community Foundations Do

The Greater Menomonie Area Community Foundation is committed to the goal of actively serving the people of Dunn County by building permanent charitable capital, making philanthropic grants and providing services that contribute to the health and vitality of our communities. Its vision is of a Greater Menomonie Area filled with residents who have taken charge of their lives and make every neighborhood, town, and city a great place to live, work, and play.

Community foundations are very special nonprofit organizations. They do not have a specific charitable purpose. Rather, they are designed to provide local donors the opportunity to engage in philanthropy in a variety of ways. They provide the mechanism for establishing endowment funds. They provide the way to achieve excellent investment yields through pooling of funds. And they provide benefits to the many communities that they serve. 

A community foundation supports charitable activities for long-term benefit of a defined geographic area. It is a tax-exempt, independent, publicly-supported philanthropic organization.

A community foundation seeks new contributions of permanent endowment from a wide range of donors. Gifts can range from simple cash donations to the giving of one's estate. Community foundations usually encourage donors to make unrestricted gifts - allowing flexible and broad use of generations of donor dollars for effective community benefit. Information regarding names of investment managers, fees charged, and individuals responsible for investment and oversight is available upon request at the foundation office.

Using earnings from invested assets, a community foundation functions primarily as a grant-making institution supporting a broad range of charitable activities that creatively address emerging and changing community needs. A community foundation may also provide leadership on pervasive community problems and provide technical advice to area nonprofit agencies.

The governing body of a community foundation represents the broad interests of the community. Its board of directors serve limited terms without compensation. A community foundation acts independently, adhering to a sense of "community." It is not controlled or influenced by other organizations, government units, or charities.