Founded in 1999, the foundation now administers $23 million in assets, with about half the investments coming from people in places like Indian Hill, Madeira, Montgomery, Loveland, Lebanon, Springboro, Maineville and Middletown.
The foundation has been handling money from those places because it gained a reputation among tax advisers, financial planners and attorneys as a friendly place to help their clients make charitable donations and bequests.
“So we are going to be granting to non-profits in all of those areas,” said Erin Clemons, the foundation’s president and CEO. “We’re very much opening it up, because we really see a need there for our northern suburbs in applying for grant dollars.”
“So we thought, ‘Let’s broaden it. Let’s reflect our current donor base, and let’s broaden that impact,’” she said.
The foundation contributes $2 million to $3 million per year, including donations by the foundation’s fund-holders, as well as grants by the foundation to various entities. Recently, the foundation has been providing three to four $30,000 grants in a year to non-profits, plus another for $50,000.
Like other community foundations, the mission is “to connect donors to causes that matter,” Clemons said. “We are the connection point and the resource, and this is why people like working with community foundations.”
“A lot of times, you have people who are learning the non-profits,” she said. “They don’t know them as intimately as we do as a community foundation, so they look to us for advice in areas they’re interested in giving.”
While many community foundations focus donations on local causes, the Northern Cincinnati Foundation handles contributions to organizations that are national or international, as long as the Internal Revenue Service considers them charitable groups.
“We’re still housed in Olde West Chester, our location will be there, and we will remain there, but we’re broadening our impact to all these other areas,” she said.
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