Aligning Values

Mar 12, 2025

For Sophia S. Ahmad, charitable giving and volunteering time to organizations in her community is a value she’s cultivated since childhood. Several years ago, Sophia and her family established a donor advised fund (DAF) with a national provider. While the commercial DAF helped Sophia organize her charitable giving, she began to see how it didn’t completely align with her values and the values she wanted to pass on to her children.  

“Our family began working with a financial advisor and through that process I took time to reflect on our own family values and how we wanted to give back in our community,” said Sophia. “I wanted to invest in an organization that also supports the nonprofit community here.”

With that reflection in mind, Sophia began working with the Community Foundation and decided to transfer her commercial DAF to a DAF at the Community Foundation.

“My experience has shown that it's super easy to give in a timely manner and to make the impact you want through the Community Foundation,” said Sophia. “The added resources they provide and their investment in the community make it a really wise choice. While it was convenient for me to work with that commercial provider, they weren't invested locally in our community. It truly has been a win moving to the Community Foundation.” 

She also sees the ways the Community Foundation can assist her family as they grow and begin to engage the children in charitable giving through their time, talents and treasure.

“With my oldest, we've begun engaging him in philanthropic activity,” said Sophia. “He has an allowance that he earns where he has to give a little to a nonprofit cause. The giving portion has helped him understand what it's like to help others and we've partnered that with volunteering. He's done a Meals on Wheels route with me and has been able to serve meals to clients. As they grow older, we look forward to working collaboratively with the Community Foundation to better understand community needs and how we can foster that mentality of service and community with our children.” 

As Vice President of Philanthropy for WesleyLife, Sophia has been able to see the Community Foundation’s work come full circle in the community and encourages others to consider how they localize their giving to their community.  

“I see firsthand the impact these funds coming from the Community Foundation have to directly address critical, vital and urgent needs in our community and how important that is,” said Sophia. “Not only do I have an immense trust in how the funds are managed at the Community Foundation, but I also sincerely appreciate all the Community Foundation does to educate on the impact of our nonprofit community. And that’s why it's so important that people utilize donor advised funds to give through the Community Foundation— to ensure that the collective vision that we have set forth as a community, for our community, comes to fruition.”