Foundation Heads East
The Long Island Community Foundation, which has supported the good works of nearly 40 East End nonprofit organizations, marked its 20th anniversary at a party in Amagansett on Oct. 18, where officials announced a $20,000 grant to a newly formed land preservation coalition here.
The Community Foundation's officials also outlined plans to expand its East End presence - plans they expect will be aided by news that a Bridgehampton resident for 32 years, who is determined to remain anonymous, has created a "charitable remainder trust," which will put "millions" of dollars in the foundation's hands after his death for "things that are important to him and to the future of the East End."
Anonymity Goal
The charitable trust, arranged through the foundation, is an example of how an individual can assure that nonprofit groups of the donor's choice benefit financially in perpetuity, while maintaining the donor's anonymity, something not possible through other means, Marilyn Oser, a Community Foundation spokeswoman, explained.
Ms. Oser said the foundation can help individuals of modest means wishing to make smaller contributions to organizations here. The foundation's professionals invest the monies, she said, and its board assures the continued "integrity" of the donations, as well as the charities'.
Banks and others who can act on behalf of donors "tend not to want to handle small accounts," Ms. Oser said.
Through a community foundation, donors can designate specific nonprofit beneficiaries - East Hampton Meals On Wheels, for example - or they can give to a general "community response fund," for "the elderly of the East End," for example, or "youth at risk." Such designations would leave specific grant decisions in the hands of the Community Foundation.
New Coalition Gains
The organization's officials claim that working through a community foundation is more economical in arranging donations than through a private attorney or financial adviser. The Community Foundation charges an annual administrative fee of either 2 percent of the amount of grants paid, or 2/10 of 1 percent of an individual fund's total assets, whichever is higher.
A member of the New York Community Trust, the nation's largest community foundation, the Long Island Community Foundation last year gave $1.9 million in grants to a variety of nonprofit organizations, most on Long Island, and about $400,000 on the East End.
The $20,000 grant announced at the Oct. 18 anniversary party went to a new coalition called the East End Initiative For Regional Land Conservation and Planning, comprised of the Group for the South Fork, the Peconic Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy's South Fork-Shelter Island Chapter, and the North Fork Environmental Council.
It is the first of several $20,000 grants Ms. Oser said the Community Foundation will make here, and throughout Long Island, from monies raised specifically for this anniversary year.
East End Seminar
Officials said they expected to open a satellite South Fork office, probably in the Bridgehampton National Bank's main office. The organization is headquartered in Jericho. It will hold its first East End seminar, free to lawyers, accountants, and other financial advisers, on Nov. 18, from 8:30 to 11 a.m. sponsored by the Community Foundation in cooperation with the Bridgehampton Bank and the Peconic Land Trust.
The morning's speakers will be William R. Ginsberg, a Hofstra University law professor and member of the law firm of Sive, Paget & Riesel, and Rochelle Korman and Joseph P. Scorese of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. Both law firms are in New York City.
Philanthropic Center
The Community Foundation is guided by a board of advisers. Jill Tane, its chairwoman, said its goal was to become "the center for philanthropy on Long Island." She said the Community Foundation helps residents "become the philanthropists they dream of being."
The East End will have its own advisory committee which will determine annual allocation of the fund's proceeds here.
Beneficiaries of the Community Foundation include a wide range of organizations, concerned with health, child care, animal welfare, the arts, and land preservation.