Endowments are forever

BY PAUL FLYNN, PRESIDENT & CEO Southwest Florida Community Foundation

Most of us give weekly to our synagogue or church.

That donation certainly helps the religious organization maintain its day-today operation.

But what if you could provide a gift that would help your favorite organization forever? An endowment fund accomplishes that...forever.

Several folks in Southwest Florida have done just that. They've established endowment funds with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation to help specific causes...for good, for ever.

For example: Back in 1978, Leonardo Santini of the Iona-McGregor neighborhood in Fort Myers passed away.

His will specified that he would leave some real estate he owned to the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. The Foundation sold the real estate for $2.5 million

and established an endowment fund for Mr. Santini's favorite charitable causes.

Leonardo specified that his funds were to help non-profits dealing in mental health, care of animals, Christian education, music programs, hungry children or the elderly, or holiday grants to the needy.

Since 1978, the Leonard Santini Fund at the Community Foundation has given away nearly $4 million, much more than he originally gave.

But all this giving hasn't diluted the Santini Fund.

Despite giving away almost $4 million, there is now almost $3 million in his fund.

That's because the Community Foundation has wisely invested his funds over the years, and provided a strong enough return to grow the fund each year.

Grants have gone to such diverse organizations as Lee County Mental Health, St. Francis School, Fort Myers Christian School, Southwest Florida Addiction Services, and First Choice Pregnancy Cen- ter, among many others.

Another example: Edna Swain was a humble lady who lived in a small house off Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Fort Myers.

Her day job was as a domestic helper and a nanny to a South Fort Myers family with several youngsters.

Much of the rest of her life centered around her church, Mount Olive AME Church in Fort Myers. She sang in the choir and regularly attended church functions.

Her fellow parishioners knew her as a quiet lady with a big heart.

But none of them expected the gift she would give to the church upon her death.

Edna left a scholarship fund of $280,000 to provide scholarships to members of her church. .

Last year, that meant that 17 students received scholarships worth $1,000 each.

Edna Swain's gift is endowed. It will go on forever, providing generations of young people from Mount Olive AME Church an educational tool to help their future.

The key to both Leonardo's Field of Interest Fund and Edna's Scholarship Fund is that they are both endowed...permanently.

Whether the endowed fund is unique to an organization or a general fund at a Community Foundation, the endowed fund is a permanent giving tree.

The Southwest Florida Boy Scout Council, for example, has an endowed fund to help fund future operations of their camps and other programs for young people. The more the Scouts can earn from their endowment, the less annual fund raising they'll need.

Learn more about how an endowed fund can stretch your giving for decades to come. Explore the possibilities by reading the annual report of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, available online @floridacommunity.com or by calling (239)274-5900 and asking a friendly staff member to mail one to you. ¦