Legacy Funds

You have made investments of your time and treasure throughout your lifetime and you want to leave a legacy. A legacy fund with the Community Foundation provides you with an opportunity to include charitable giving in your estate plans and make a difference for generations to come.

"The legacy of Harriet and Locke's philanthropic efforts have one common element: they loved Des Moines and were committed to making it a better place to live. We are all beneficiaries of their gifts, as will be future generations."

-Maestro Joseph Giunta, Des Moines Symphony

Benefits of a Legacy Fund

Personal

Legacy funds allow you to make a long-term impact on the causes and communities that are most important to you. Your continued support will allow the selected organizations to carry out their missions and contribute to the community for years to come.

Lasting

Legacy funds provide you the opportunity to share the gift of giving with future generations. You can use assets named in your legacy fund to open a charitable giving fund for family, a friend, a business or committee to continue to invest in causes they care about and pass on the joy of giving. 

Flexible

A legacy fund offers you the opportunity to ensure that charitable giving is part of your estate plans, with the flexibility to change the causes you plan to support over time. Because you name your legacy fund in your will or trust, you can work with the Community Foundation to adjust the causes you would like to support without the hassle of revising your estate plans.

Collaborative

Our team of charitable giving experts is here to assist you in establishing your legacy fund to meet your financial and giving goals. We will work alongside you and your professional advisors to ensure your charitable giving fund fits into your overall estate plans.

Efficient

The Community Foundation can receive a variety of gifts to support a legacy fund including: assets from a will or trust, life insurance policies, IRAs, 401(k) plans, real estate, charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts.

Consider a Legacy Fund if You:

  • Want to personally communicate how your charitable legacy will forever benefit the causes and communities you care about.
  • Appreciate the flexibility of being able to easily change your charitable intentions during your lifetime without making revisions to your will or trust.
  • Seek to create a personalized plan for giving after your lifetime. Legacy funds allow you to personalize your giving; so whether you want to distribute one time gifts to the charities of your choice, establish endowments for sustainable support or create a charitable giving fund for family members to continue your charitable legacy - we are here to create a customized plan for you. 

LifeTown Legacy® Society

The Community Foundation’s LifeTown Legacy® Society recognizes the forward-thinking individuals who have made the generous decision to invest in the future of the causes they care about by establishing a permanent endowment or planned gift to a charitable giving fund at the Community Foundation. We are privileged to honor such a commitment to the future - today. Greater Des Moines may not be your hometown, but it is your LifeTown. The place where you have spent a significant part of your life, raised your family, pursued a business career and developed lasting friendships. Click here to view a list of LifeTown Legacy® Society members.

Financial Facts

  • A legacy fund can be established in any amount and with a variety of asset types. 
  • Legacy funds are free of administrative fees until assets are received. 
  • The ability to combine funds into professionally managed portfolios allows greater diversification of investments and access to investment vehicles that would not be possible for individual funds. 
  • The Community Foundation is about more than transactions; we are about transformation.  While fees collected for funds held at the Community Foundation support the processing of grant checks, accepting and acknowledging donations, completing annual audits and reporting; our fees also make you part of the change we enable in the communities we serve. It's the community convenings, the strategic grantmaking, the donor-connections, the facilitated dialogues, the nonprofit trainings and the promotion of charitable giving that ultimately transforms the communities we call home. Thank you for joining us to improve quality of life in your community.  We're simply better together.
  • Click here to view the Community Foundation's administrative fee structure