Receiving a Match for Your Gift
Background
The Lilly Endowment Inc. has played a critical role in the support and growth of the Henry County Community Foundation since it incorporated in 1985. Over the last 23 years, the Lilly Endowment has provided an opportunity to match gifts made to the Community Foundation on five separate occasions through the Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative which was “designed to help local Indiana communities develop the philanthropic capacity to address their own needs and challenges.” The Lilly Endowment announced a sixth phase of GIFT, providing the Community Foundation an additional $500,000 in matching funds to help provide for our community’s most pressing needs. Read the Lilly Endowment press release here.
Matching Your Gift
$1 for $1
Lilly is providing a $1 match for every $1 donated for anyone that contributes to the Foundation’s unrestricted endowment fund. The Foundation’s unrestricted fund, the Community Endowment Fund, is the easiest and most flexible way to provide for the most pressing needs in our community, forever. With the Lilly match your gift to this fund will double and provide lasting support for our community.
$1 for $2
Under Lilly’s guidelines anyone can add to an existing endowment fund or create a new fund (either their own, individual fund or an agency fund) and receive $1 in matching funds for every $2 they contribute.
Matching Period
Only funds received by the Community Foundation during the match period of August 1, 2014 – March 31, 2016 are eligible to be matched or until the balance of matching funds is allocated.
Questions
This matching opportunity from the Lilly Endowment is a tremendous opportunity for our community. The matching period ends on Match 31, 2016 or once the allotted matching funds have been allocated. Gifts made to existing endowment funds will receive their match automatically. If you’re interested in establishing a new endowment fund and want to take advantage of the match, or if you have additional questions about the match, please call us at 765-529-2235.
Agency Funds
Under Lilly’s guidelines anyone can add to an agency endowment fund and receive $1 in matching funds for every $2 they contribute. However, Lilly will not match any funds that are already designated for a charitable purpose (i.e. a nonprofit cannot transfer their own assets to an endowment fund). Therefore, only contributions to an agency endowment fund that meet the following guidelines will be matched:
- The funds are raised specifically for the purpose of adding to the endowment at the Community Foundation;
- The Community Foundation is central to the fundraising effort. That is, the Community Foundation and endowment fund are specifically named in any fundraising communication to potential donors.
Contributions from individuals directly to an agency endowment at the Community Foundation would be matchable.
Private Foundation Gifts
Per Lilly’s guidelines, grants made by private foundations during their normal course of grant making to a program of the Foundation are eligible for a match, however a transfer of assets from a private foundation is not eligible for a match.