What Is Matchstick?

What Is An Agency Endowment?

What Is The Selection Process?

How Can I Give?

What Is The Community Foundation?

How Are Investments Managed?

WHAT IS MATCHSTICK?  
The Matchstick endowment campaign was created to encourage agencies and those that support them to build permanent endowment funds. Matchstick provides a 1:3 matching of funds; $1 from the Community Foundation for every $3 donated to the agency endowment. This program is made possible through a grant from the Unrestricted Fund, a component fund of the Community Foundation. The Community Foundation’s Board of Directors has allocated $250,000 to this initiative as match dollars.

The program was launched with Phase One in 2006. Each of the Phase One partnering agencies – Bloomington Parks and Recreation Foundation, Lotus Arts and Education Foundation, Middle Way House and Monroe County United Ministries – met its endowment goal. The Matchstick program will continue with Phase Two in 2007 and Phase Three in 2008. Each agency's endowment will generate annual support for its mission, in perpetuity.

WHAT IS AN AGENCY ENDOWMENT?
Agency endowments are funds established to benefit a particular non-profit organization in Bloomington/Monroe County. Gifts made to a fund remain a permanent asset at the Community Foundation to support the financial well being of the benefiting organization. This permanent pool of assets is designed to provide a stable source of revenue as part of an agency’s funding mix.

Fund distributions can be utilized for an agency’s operation in many ways:  for capital projects, administrative costs including salaries, emergency needs such as funding shortfalls, and new opportunities that arise from time to time.

WHAT IS THE SELECTION PROCESS TO DETERMINE PARTICIPATING AGENCIES?
Partnering agencies have been selected through an open and competitive grant application process. The Community Foundation is confident that each agency’s staff and board are committed to the concept of endowment, have the capacity to conduct a successful endowment campaign and will effectively use the annual distributions from the endowment.

HOW CAN I GIVE?
All checks should be made payable and sent to the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, 101 West Kirkwood, Suite 321, Bloomington, IN 47401.

You may donate stocks or bonds as part of Matchstick. Gifts of real personal property may be accepted (per Community Foundation gift policy) and will be gifted and matched at appraised value. Pledges, gift annuities and other planned gifts will count towards the Matchstick goal only if they are deposited by Dec. 31, 2007.

Interested in including an existing fund in your will? Sample bequest language is available from the Community Foundation and benefiting agencies upon request, or from the Community Foundation’s web site. You may also wish to consult your attorney, CPA or financial advisor for estate planning ideas.

For more information, stop by the Community Foundation office, located on the third floor of Fountain Square Mall (Suite 321), call 333-9016, or email the staff:

For stock gifts – Tom Lovell, Accountant, cfbooks at insightbb.com
For planned gifts – Shari Woodbury, President/CEO, cfdirector at insightbb.com
For general questions – Pete Rhoda, Development Director, cfdonor at insightbb.com

Please remember that through Matchstick, agencies are seeking endowment support in addition to any annual contributions you make toward their current operations.

WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION?
A community foundation is a vehicle for people of all means to make a lasting difference in the community causes they care about. Established in 1990, the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County is governed by an active volunteer board of directors and operated by a five-person professional staff. It administers more than 150 funds, including endowments designated to support over 30 specific non-profit agencies, as well managing grantmaking programs. Our Community Foundation was recently recognized for its compliance with the Indiana and national standards for community foundations. 

HOW ARE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INVESTMENTS MANAGED?
The Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County maintains more than $22 million in assets, including a $15 million investment portfolio that supports grantmaking. A record $621,000 was approved for granting in fiscal year 2007. The portfolio is managed by Oxford Financial Group, an independent investment advisor, and monitored by the Community Foundation’s Finance and Investment Committee.

Endowment dollars are pooled for investment purposes, then tracked on a fund basis.  Investments in the portfolio are diversified across asset classes and management styles, in order to grow the fund through a total return approach (interest, dividends and capital appreciation). It is the aim of the Community Foundation to maximize the return of the investment portfolio within reasonable and prudent levels of risk. More information, including performance compared to benchmarks, is available on the Investment Program page of the Community Foundation’s web site.