About Whitefish Community Foundation

Whitefish Community Foundation strengthens the Flathead Valley by supporting local nonprofits with direct funding along with the resources and training they need to excel at their missions. We manage and grow nonprofit endowment funds, which provide nonprofits with sustainable sources of revenue. 

We work with donors to simplify their giving and maximize local impact through various tools such as Donor Advised Funds, the Circle of Giving, and the Montana Endowment Tax Credit.

Whitefish Community Foundation offers donors a way to simplify their charitable giving:

• You can give through the Great Fish Community Challenge and maximize your gift to one or many of the participating charities and only have one tax receipt to retain.
• You can open a Donor Advised Fund which offers the convenience of making one gift and then granting the funds out over a period of time.
• Your gift to the Community Foundation helps to expand the important work of the Foundation’s many grant programs.
• Your gift to the Circle of Giving supports all the Foundation’s grant programs, including Major Community Projects, Emergency Grants, Community Grants, and the Great Fish Community Challenge that inspires the rest of our community to give.

No. Whitefish Community Foundation makes charitable giving easy for donors through its Donor Advised Fund Program. It also works with local nonprofits and donors through a giving platform that inspires the community to give during the Great Fish Community Challenge by offering a matching grant. Donors often get involved with the Community Foundation when they are short-term residents because it is a way for them to get involved with the community on a level that works for them.

Whitefish Community Foundation offers donors a professional Donor Advised Program that is convenient, easy to use and offers a very competitive low administration fee to manage your fund. You can access our community knowledge and find out what programs and nonprofits need. Your fund can be invested just like a commercial charitable fund but when you open a Donor Advised Fund with Whitefish Community Foundation, the low fees you pay will stay here and benefit your community.

Yes, you can recommend a grant from your Donor Advised Fund to any 501(c)(3) public charity in the United States.

There are several reasons to consider a Donor Advised Fund over a Private Foundation as your charitable giving tool:

• Whitefish Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and contributions receive the maximum tax advantage for contributions.
• Donor Advised Funds simplify your reporting and charitable giving because the Community Foundation takes care of everything and all you do is retain one tax receipt.
• Your Donor Advised Fund can be invested to grow over time and it is not subject to excise taxes. There is also no minimum amount you must give each year.
• When you open a Donor Advised Fund with the Community Foundation, you can access our community expertise and we do all the grant making due diligence for you.

Donations to Whitefish Community Foundation are guided by the charitable intent of our donors and stewarded by the Whitefish Community Foundation for long-term community benefit.

As a community foundation, we are entrusted with a legal responsibility of our charitable assets, known as variance power, that allows our Board of Directors, under certain circumstances, to modify the use of a fund should donor intent become impossible to uphold at some point in the future.

This flexibility is essential to ensuring that charitable funds remain effective over time. It is also a requirement of the IRS and for our rigorous accreditation under the Community Foundations National Standards.