Nonprofit endowment-building made simple

Nonprofits across the Quad Cities know that issues like affordable housing, food insecurity, and mental health can’t be addressed overnight. They understand the importance of long-term sustainability to continue carrying out their missions and meeting the community’s evolving needs. Yet the daily demands of running a nonprofit can leave future planning on the backburner.

One long-term planning strategy that too often gets bumped to the end of the to-do list? Establishing and growing a nonprofit endowment to provide a permanent source of reliable funding for an organization.

“We want to give local development directors a way to make their endowment-building programmatic and successful,” said Anne Calder, vice president of development at the Quad Cities Community Foundation. “We know it’s not their only job to raise funds for their endowment—they need to raise precious annual fund donations every year. We want them to know that it’s not an either/or scenario--they can be successful at both.”  

Learn more about the benefit of nonprofit endowment funds and our Toolkit here.

That’s why Calder and Joscelyn Rowe, director of donor engagement and stewardship, developed a Nonprofit Endowment-Building Toolkit, an actionable resource that makes it easy for nonprofits to raise funds for their endowments. The Toolkit includes an overview of what endowment funds are and the many ways they benefit nonprofits, from building financial security to diversifying avenues for giving and providing tax benefits for donors. Just as important, the Toolkit offers concrete tips for engaging nonprofit leadership and donors, along with sample “plug-and-play” language for use in a variety of communications.

“Development leaders are so busy—we want them to have resources they can make their own right at their fingertips,” said Rowe. “We’ve found that when we give nonprofits the tools and show them that it doesn’t have to be hard, they see success. Many of them are seeing extraordinary success with these tools.”

One of those is The Center. A faith-based social services agency working to alleviate the pain of the marginalized and oppressed, The Center had been discussing strategies for long-term sustainability for years before opening an endowment fund with the Community Foundation in 2020.  

“You might think that starting an endowment in the middle of a pandemic would be counterproductive, but our donors were geared up,” said The Center’s director, Pennie Kellenberger, explaining that supporters had already stepped up to help The Center and the 12 nonprofits that operate out of its building in Davenport get through the COVID-19 crisis. “At the end of the year, I went back to our donors and said, ‘Now I have a new idea—let’s talk about long-term giving.’”  

Since then, Kellenberger has made impressive headway in engaging donors to give to The Center’s endowment. “I explain that this a different way they can give, above and beyond their daily giving. It’s been successful because the people we asked were capable of giving in this different way. You have to know your donors.”

It’s also been successful because everyone in the organization is now aligned on a clear message, down to consistently speaking the same language, Kellenberger added. “I lean on the language in the Toolkit. It’s concise and easy for anyone to read, understand, and repeat,” she said. “And even before we started our fund, the information the Community Foundation provided really helped me go to the board with this idea.”

While its endowment is growing, The Center can expect to see annual distributions from it in the coming years, grants that will become larger as the fund increases through gifts and investment returns. “It’s great to see dollars come into endowment funds, but that’s not our end goal,” said Rowe. “Dollars coming back out and lifting up nonprofits in the Quad Cities over the next 10, 20, or even 100 years—that’s what we want.”

“This is how you can work with your donors to make gifts for the future in a way that they can appreciate now,” Calder added. “Those gifts will make an impact through your fund’s annual distribution, but the fund will also continue to compound interest at a greater level every year. That’s incredible, and it’s only possible through endowment.”  

To find out how the Community Foundation can help your nonprofit start and grow an endowment fund, email Anne Calder at AnneCalder@qccommunityfoundation.org or Joscelyn Rowe at joscelynrowe@qccommunityfoundation.org or call (563) 326-2840.