Agency Endowment Program

Competition for donor gifts emphasizes the need for nonprofits to think of their future and establish predictable sources of income. An endowment can effectively stabilize the income of an agency and insulate it against fluctuations in contributions. A permanent pool of assets - professionally managed by our seasoned investment committee and advisors - generates income for your organization and has the opportunity to grow over the long term. We commingle its funds for investment purposes, which is conducive to higher investment returns and lower administration fees.

Since community foundations exist to manage permanently endowed funds, an agency endowment at the Foundation offers multiple benefits:

• All gifts to your agency fund are restricted for your use only. While commingled for investment, your agency's endowment will not be used for other purposes.
• You have the flexibility to choose to reinvest all or part of the income generated by your endowment fund in years when it may not be needed, so the fund may grow to provide greater stability in the future.
• Your endowment fund receives exposure in our annual report and other marketing documents, reaching more, and perhaps different, donors than on your current list.
• Being invested in a larger pool of assets can lead to greater growth, greater income, and lower investment fees.
• We handle investment management and oversight, all accounting and financial reporting, and all annual tax filing.
• All gifts are tax deductible at the highest levels allowed by law.

Fundholders may request distributions of income based on our spending policy after the endowment funds have been held by the foundation for 12 months. Our current spending policy makes available from endowment funds, on an annual basis, the sum of 5%, net of investment fees, of the market value of the fund for grants to the beneficiary organization. You will receive quarterly fund statements with information about the fund’s performance and activities. Foundation for MetroWest assesses all of its endowment funds for a modest annual fee of 1% of the market value of each fund, net of investment fees. No other fees such as legal, tax preparation, accounting or audit are assessed.