10.08.2007 -  Over the last 17 years, generous local support has enabled the Community Foundation to build more than $23 million in its investment and real estate portfolio and award nearly $13 million in cumulative grants. However, Tim and Dorothy Ellis believe that the Foundation’s true assets extend well beyond dollars and cents.

“Perpetuity is a big reason why we started the Tim and Dorothy Ellis donor-advised Fund at the Community Foundation,” Tim said. “It’s a great way to keep money local and help leave a better life for future generations.”

As donor advisors, the Ellis’ provide input on which causes or charities may receive their annual fund payout. According to Tim and Dorothy, this flexibility is invaluable.

"The Community Foundation works to support, protect, build, enrich and safeguard our community,” Dorothy said. “The needs of today are not necessarily the needs of tomorrow.  A gift to the Foundation allows flexibility to re-direct funds as needs change."

From 1990-2003, a series of Lilly Endowment matching programs (Giving Indiana Funds For Tomorrow – GIFT) helped every county in the state establish and cultivate a community foundation. In Bloomington and Monroe County, GIFT served as a catalyst for an organization that now administers more than 150 unrestricted, designated, field of interest, donor-advised and scholarship funds that generated a record $621,000 in grants and earned a 15.9 percent net return on its investments this past fiscal year. 

Tim served on the Community Foundation board from 1996-2001, so he can directly attest to the philanthropic influence of the community foundation movement statewide. (These foundations have grown in strength and serve their communities independent from Lilly Endowment, which ended the GIFT matching in 2003). In addition, he and Dorothy offer some sound advice for those weighing the benefit of private foundation versus a donor-advised fund that is pooled in a community foundation portfolio – there is strength in numbers.

“If a family has a $1 million gift that it wants to use to start a private foundation, they should go with the economy of scale and join with a group that has $20 million,” Tim said. “It will have much more leverage than a private foundation, not to mention the good bit of money it takes to administer a private foundation. Why not put the gift in a big pot where administration is more reasonable per dollar?”

Indeed, the Community Foundation has provided a cost-effective means for Tim and Dorothy Ellis to maximize their reinvestment in Bloomington and Monroe County.