What is a Community Foundation?
A Philanthropic Institution to Serve the Needs of the Community
A community foundation is a tax-exempt, non-profit, autonomous, publicly supported, philanthropic institution with a long term goal of building permanent, component funds established by many separate donors for the broad-based charitable benefit of the residents of a defined geographic area. Our focus is Madison and its citizens.
Our objective is to serve as a permanent source of funding for Madison’s charitable efforts. We are building a growing number of named charitable funds created by generous individuals, families, companies and foundations that share a commitment to Madison and the well-being of its people. Our program also includes unrestricted funds donated by individuals, businesses and organizations for The Foundation to use in ways that we judge to best serve our mission and the needs of the community.
We accept and administer a diversity of gift types to meet the varied philanthropic objectives of donors. We serve as a steward of those funds, investing and prudently managing funds and maintaining financial records.
We inform and educate donors of named funds about community issues and grant-making opportunities, and actively involve them in identifying and responding to community issues and needs.
We are recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3), organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes.