INVESTMENT PARTNER PROGRAM

The Mankato Area Foundation Investment Partners Program creates a value-added partnership between financial advisors and MAF. The financial advisor can assist its clients with charitable gifts and still maintain management of the gifted funds. MAF then hires the advisor to manage the gifted funds. The advisor helps MAF and the Greater Mankato area by guiding clients with charitable interests to MAF. Learn More

INVESTMENT POLICY

The overall investment strategy of The Mankato Area Foundation is to preserve and enhance the charitable purchasing power of our funds over time. To accomplish this, we retain an independent investment advisor who works with MAF’s Investment Committee to invest our funds pursuant to our Investment Policy. View our Investment Policy.

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION VS. PRIVATE FOUNDATION

A community foundation is supported by a broad and ever-widening group of unrelated individuals, families, corporations, and institutions. The only thing that connects all of our donors is a desire to improve local communities.

Because of their broad base of support, community foundations are classified by the IRS as publicly-supported charities. This gives community foundations tax advantages not enjoyed by private foundations.

Community foundations are also allowed to treat all funds within their control (known as “component funds”) as part of a single corporation. This gives them administrative and investment advantages over private foundations as well.

Private foundations, by contrast, are generally supported by a single individual, family, or business. Rarely does it make sense to establish a private foundation if the principle endowment is not large. Today, of course, the world’s largest foundations – Gates, Ford, Kellogg – are all still private foundations.

For more information on how community foundations differ from private foundations you can view our Comparison Chart.

When Ryan McKeown meets with clients at Wealth Enhancement in Mankato, he asks the questions that most other financial advisors ask about current cash flow, expected income and goals for retirement. But then he pops another question as well: How much do they want to be able to give away, even in retirement? “If you want to be able to continue a certain level of charitable giving after you retire, you should be planning for that now,” McKeown says. “If you want to be able to fund your giving for another 20 years, then I might recommend a strategy like starting a donor-advised fund now.”

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