Getting Started

You have free access to the Community Foundation’s professional staff who will be happy to work with you and your advisors to decide how best to accomplish your charitable goals.

We have made it easy to establish your own charitable legacy. A family, individual, nonprofit agency or corporation may initially establish a named fund with $1,000 in cash , securities or other property. The Fund must be built up to $5,000 within a five-year period before grants can be awarded.

The Community Foundation can prepare draft endowment agreements, charitable gift annuity projections and other reports. For those individuals considering a bequest as the means for creating an endowed fund, below is sample wording recommended for your attorney.

Sample Wording For Gifts By Bequest

I give and bequeath the sum of $ _____ [or] the following described property (description of assets given) to the Chillicothe-Ross Community Foundation, Inc.; with the request, as consistent with the Articles of Organization of the Chillicothe-Ross Community Foundation, Inc., that the funds thus transferred be used to establish a permanent fund, to be known as (Name of Fund). Grants for charitable purposes shall be made from annual available proceeds, in keeping with the spending policy, subject to the schedule of fees adopted by the Foundation for investing and administering the Fund.”

To Establish an Agency or Designated Fund

I give and bequeath the sum of $ _____ [or] the following described property (description of assets given) to the Chillicothe-Ross Community Foundation, Inc.; with the request, as consistent with the Articles of Organization of the Chillicothe-Ross Community Foundation, Inc., that the funds thus transferred be used to establish a permanent fund, to be known as the (Name of Fund). Grants for charitable purposes shall be made to the following nonprofit organization(s) in the Chillicothe and Ross County, Ohio area: [list name(s) of beneficiary organization(s), annual percentage to each if more than one]. Such grants shall be made from annual available proceeds, in keeping with the spending policy, subject to the schedule of fees adopted by the Foundation for investing and administering the Fund.”