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For almost 100 years, we have been a trusted partner to professional advisors, helping their clients make a charitable impact. We ensure their philanthropic priorities withstand the test of time and adapt to meet the challenges of the future.

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Your Charitable Partner

For almost 100 years, we have been a trusted partner to professional advisors, helping their clients make a charitable impact. We ensure their philanthropic priorities withstand the test of time and adapt to meet the challenges of the future.

We offer the tax benefits of giving to a public charity, customizable charitable solutions, and access to grantmaking professionals, philanthropic advisors, and investment services.

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We can help you help your clients as they decide what causes are important to them, how they want to structure their giving, and whether they want to involve family members. For those looking to minimize overhead and maximize charitable impact, a fund in The New York Community Trust can be a sound alternative to a private foundation. If your client already has a foundation that they are thinking of winding down, they might consider moving the assets to a charitable fund in The Trust. Your client can continue to drive the grantmaking during their lifetime, and we can carry on their legacy after they are gone.

Donors can set up funds in either The New York Community Trust or in Community Funds, Inc., our not-for-profit corporate affiliate. They share staff and a governing board, and file a combined IRS return.

The IRS has classified us as “tax exempt” under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; as a “publicly supported” organization under Section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi); “not a private foundation” under Section 509(a)(1); and as a “community trust” under Treas. Reg. Sections 1.170A-9(e)(10) and (11). This status ensures donors the maximum tax benefit allowed by law. This also applies to our divisions, the Long Island Community Foundation and the Westchester Community Foundation.

CREATING A FUND

In Community Funds

Community Funds, Inc., (CFI) is a New York not-for-profit corporation. The assets of a fund with CFI are managed by outside money managers and overseen by our staff and Investment Committee. Call or visit our website for a copy of our Certificate of Incorporation and bylaws.

In The New York Community Trust

To set up a fund in trust, the donor must choose from one of our trustee banks. A list of these banks is on our website, or is available upon request. These banks have already adopted the Resolution and Declaration of Trust creating “The New York Community Trust” (the R&D). This document details the powers and duties of the trustee bank, and our Distribution Committee (governing board). The founding document must include the R&D by reference.

In Our Long Island or Westchester divisions

The Long Island Community Foundation and the Westchester Community Foundation are divisions of Community Funds, so donors have the same options described above.

CONTACT US TO DISCUSS YOUR CLIENTS’ CHARITABLE LEGACY.
We can provide information about our fund types, suggested wording to help draft the gift instrument, and more. 

General Counsel Carrie Trowbridge
(212) 686-2563
Carrietrowbridge@nyct-cfi.org
www.nycommunitytrust.org/advisors

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Finding the Best Ways to Give Back

Kathy N. Rosenthal is a partner in the law firm Rosenthal & Markowitz LLP in White Plains, N.Y., and a former member of the Westchester Community Foundation’s board of advisors.

 

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NYCT professional advisor Kathy Rosenthal Headshot

Photo by Ari Mintz

In my work as a lawyer working with clients to plan their estates and addressing other matters, I call on many professionals to help me, such as accountants and financial planners. The New York Community Trust staff are just as integral to my work. They are an enormous resource.

To do my job well, I talk to clients about very personal aspects of their lives. For example, I have to know how the clients feel about their grown child’s new spouse or partner, how their grandchildren manage their money and lives, who they like and don’t like. I learn what I need and clients are very happy to have somebody who’s an active listener.

Some clients arrive at my office with a philanthropic plan or a desire to give back, but regardless of their income, I ask them their plans for the ‘God forbid’ scenarios: who will inherit if their intended beneficiaries die before they die. This can lead us to discuss charitable giving and their core values.

With The Trust, clients know the money is in safe hands and will be used the way they intend. It’s a way of making smart charitable choices without a crystal ball. Organizations come and go, diseases are cured. The Trust helps people use their money smartly in an evolving culture.

The added value provided by The Trust is that the staff knows the community’s needs: where the holes in service are and which organizations competently fill those gaps. Anybody can write a check to a nonprofit; what’s important is knowing which nonprofit to help, which will make smart, impactful gifts. Working with The Trust, my clients don’t have to immediately pick which nonprofit they want to leave their money to 20 or 40 years from now.

I have found the people at The Trust to be informed, involved, and welcoming. They don’t try to get in the way of a client’s charitable goals; they embrace each client’s ideas so the goals can be implemented. They just say, ’We will work with you.’ The Trust has been wonderfully supportive for my clients and for me as a planning professional.”

With The Trust, clients know the money is in safe hands and will be used the way they intend. It’s a way of making smart charitable choices without a crystal ball. Organizations come and go, diseases are cured. The Trust helps people use their money smartly in an evolving culture.
– Kathy N. Rosenthal, partner in the law firm Rosenthal & Markowitz LLP in White Plains, N.Y.