Seed Funds

You can start building the foundation for your charitable giving through a Community Foundation seed fund. Seed funds allow you to grow your charitable dollars over time while you develop your personalized giving strategy. 

"Because the dollars in our fund are professionally invested, they will continue to grow, so we can do more good. This provides us an opportunity to teach our children the power of investing early for greater charitable impact."

- Sarah & Zac Voss

Benefits of a Seed Fund

How Do I Start a Seed Fund?
To open a seed fund, an initial charitable contribution of $1,000 is made. Each year a minimum contribution of $600 is made until the seed fund grows to $10,000.
When Does a Seed Fund Mature?
Once your fund reaches $10,000, you can begin making grants from your charitable giving fund to the causes you care about. You can work with our charitable giving experts to determine which of our fund types best meets your giving and financial goals.
How Can the Community Foundation Team Help?
The Community Foundation handles the administrative details of your seed fund so you can instead focus on developing your giving goals. Through unique tax-wise giving opportunities like the Endow Iowa Tax Credit, a 25% state tax credit. The Community Foundation can accept gifts of many types, including appreciated securities, real estate, business interests, personal tangible property, retirement plans, life insurance and agricultural assets. 

Learn more about Seed Funds

Financial Facts

  • A seed fund can be established with $1,000 and with a variety of gift types. 
  • No administrative fees are charged until the fund reaches $10,000.
  • The ability to pool funds into professionally managed portfolios allows greater diversification of investments and access to investment vehicles that would not be possible for individual funds. 
  • You can monitor your fund’s growth through the Community Foundation’s online fund management system, Manage My Fund.