The community foundation offers a charitable giving experience that is as uncomplicated as it is rewarding.
A record $150,781 in scholarships was awarded to local graduates this year, thanks to generous donors and dedicated volunteers.
Your generosity helped raise over $481,000 during this year’s Fremont Area Big Give! See how your support made a difference in our 2025 impact snapshot—proof that small gifts can do big things.
Did you know you can support your community and enjoy tax advantages—see how a gift from your IRA can make a difference.
This year, we thank three retiring board members whose leadership and dedication have helped shape the foundation’s continued impact in the Fremont area.
We all know volunteering has a positive influence, but did you know that it can actually assist your health?
Recently, we’ve engaged with many professional advisors—attorneys, accountants, and financial planners—who work with clients utilizing community foundations in a variety of ways, ranging from contributing to important initiatives, supporting the community’s foundation’s operating endowment, making qualified charitable distributions from IRAs, or participating in foundation-hosted events that address critical local priorities.
Interestingly, we have discovered that some advisors were not aware that their clients had established donor-advised funds through national financial institutions. Although these clients are familiar with the community foundation, they simply did not know that the community foundation could help them in multiple ways, including establishing a donor-advised fund to support favorite charities.
It’s easier–and more beneficial–than you might think for your client to move a donor-advised fund to the community foundation! Here’s what you need to know.
If your client base includes business owners, you probably weren’t surprised by this observation in a recent Wall Street Journal article about the “stealthy wealthy”: “Behind a paycheck, the largest source of income for the 1% highest earners in the U.S. isn’t being a partner at an investment bank or launching a one-in-a-million tech startup. It is owning a medium-size regional business.”
What’s more, the chances are very good that most of your business-owner clients are charitably-inclined. Indeed, more than 90% of small business owners have supported charities and community activities in the last year.
This means that you and other tax and estate planning advisors ought to have at least a basic level of knowledge about the benefits and mechanics of giving closely-held business interests to charity. When properly executed, this technique can be extremely effective to achieve the client’s financial and philanthropic goals. Here are three very important components of this strategy.
There’s little doubt that you’ve seen extensive news coverage of the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" (H.R. 1) that passed the House of Representatives by a 215-214 vote on May 22, 2025, and now moves to the Senate, where significant changes are expected before final passage. And that is the primary takeaway here: Significant changes are expected. This makes it impossible to predict right now how your clients might be impacted by tax law changes.
Still, it’s important to be aware of key components of the bill that could impact estate and financial planning. Three key provisions rise to the top as advisors consider how their charitable clients might be affected.
No matter how old you are, what your musical taste is or whether or not you can read a note, there’s never a wrong time to learn how to play an instrument.
