Door County Community Foundation

December 2014

Inspiring People to
Give Back to
Sustain and Advance the
Community We Love

The wonderful thing about this time of year is whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Festivus, there is a spirit that ties all of these holidays together. Fundamentally, this time of year is about giving.

Unfortunately, Madison Avenue advertising firms have convinced us that during the holidays "shopping" is a synonym for "giving." If you're like me, our holiday season will be a time of buying pointless kitchen gadgets and power tools that soon will be sitting on a shelf gathering dust.

Sadly, the Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday season has largely become a time to shop. Just look at all the special "days" over the last week.

It began with Black Friday. Unless you live under a rock, you know that Black Friday is that infamous day of shopping during which big box retail stores entice us with the promise of blockbuster deals. Black Friday has grown into such a retail phenomenon that it now infringes on Thanksgiving itself. Countless stores are open part or all of our national day of thanks.

That was followed by Small Business Saturday. If Black Friday is all about the mega-retailers, Small Business Saturday is when the little guys fight back. Small Business Saturday is the day when small, locally owned retailers bind together to remind us that they're a great Christmas shopping option as well. They remind us that when buy local, we're keeping more of our dollars in our local communities.

Read the rest of "We're More Than Consumers" in the Peninsula Pulse.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Bret N. Bicoy, President & CEO

In This Issue

Simplifying Your Year-End Giving with a Donor Advised Fund

Sustainability Grants Awarded to Local Charities

Endowments in Action: Crossroads at Big Creek

Give Door County Publications Available for Download

Board of Directors

Dave Eliot, Chair

Polly Alberts, Vice Chair

Dick Egan, Secretary

Richard Hauser, Treasurer

John Herlache, Past Chair

Bill Boettcher

Jacinda Duffin
Mike Felhofer

Mark Jinkins

Linda Laarman

Frank Maxwell

Michael McCoy

Kaaren Northrop

Sally O'Brien

Nancy Sargent

Marcia Smith

Jane Stevenson

Donate Today!

Make an instant donation using a credit card to any of the Funds of the Door County Community Foundation. Give back online today!

Or contact us to talk about creating a Fund in your family's name - either today or in your estate plans.

Follow Us Online

For the latest news on charity in Door County, read our publications and previous issues of our Newsletter, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

Simplifying Your Year-End Giving with a Donor Advised Fund

The year is coming to an end - and your accountant is advising you that this would be a good year to earn a sizeable charitable deduction. But with the new year just around the corner and the holidays approaching, you don't have the time to deal with charitable giving.

The solution? Open a Donor Advised Fund at the Door County Community Foundation! With a gift today you'll earn a tax deduction in this tax year, then you can take as much time as you need to determine which charities will ultimately benefit from your generosity!

This is just one of the advantages of using a Donor Advised Fund to facilitate your giving. It's a simpler, cheaper, and more tax-efficient alternative to creating your own private foundation!

Here's how it works:

Open your Donor Advised Fund at the Community Foundation with a gift of at least $1,000.
You can give cash, appreciated stocks, real estate, or other assets.
We set up a special Fund in your name, in the name of your family or business, or in honor of any person or organization you choose.
Your gift to your Donor Advised Fund earns you a tax deduction in the year your gift is made.
You can then support the causes and organizations you care about most with future distributions from your Donor Advised Fund.
We handle all the administrative details and issue grants to charities in the name of your Donor Advised Fund (or if you prefer, grants can be made anonymously).

If you choose, your gift can be placed into an endowment that is invested over time. Earnings from your Fund are used to make grants literally forever. Your gift - and all future earnings from your gift - can become a permanent source of community capital, forever giving back in your family's name. It's an incredible legacy for Door County!

Contact the Community Foundation at (920 746-1786, or speak your own tax professional to learn more about how a Donor Advised Fund can help you be generous in a very tax-efficient way.

Sustainability Grants Recently Presented to Local Charities

The Door County Community Foundation recently awarded the St. Vincent Hospital Regional Cancer Center a Sustainability Grant from the Health and Human Needs Fund and the Elizabeth "Betty" Lawrence Memorial Fund to purchase a blanket warmer. Blanket warmers mean a great deal to patients who are undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

"Patients may unfortunately experience a variety of challenging side effects while receiving chemotherapy treatments, with one of those effects being the sensation of being cold. Our hope is that the blanket warmer will help patients feel as comfortable as possible during those treatments thereby increasing the likelihood that they can undergo the entire course of their individual treatment

plan," said Linda Laarman, board member of the Door County Community Foundation.

The St. Vincent Regional Cancer Center group of 19 oncologists, including the region's only gynecologic and pediatric oncologists, is the largest group of medical and radiation oncologists in the region, standing ready to work hand in hand with a multitude of other skilled experts to help patients during one of the most critical times of their lives.

To reduce the burden of travel for patients, the oncologists travel to regional communities who are part of the St. Vincent Cancer Collaborative to help deliver high quality cancer care at a location close to their patients' homes. Door County is one such community.

St. Vincent Hospital has been caring for the people of Northeast Wisconsin since 1888 and has been providing cancer care services for over 50 years. In 2001, St. Vincent became one of only two National Cancer Institute Community Clinical Oncology Programs in the state. The St. Vincent Hospital Regional Cancer Center has been servicing patients at Ministry Door County Medical Center since 2005. This is the only location in Door County offering cancer treatment and access to cancer prevention, control, and treatment clinical trials.

For more information regarding services provided by the St. Vincent Hospital Regional Cancer Center, please call (920) 884-5774.

The Door County Community Foundation also recently awarded the Door County Historical Society a Sustainability Grant from the Clifford & Clara Herlache Heritage Foundation to support the development and construction of a Hand Tool Museum. The new museum will showcase a collection of historic hand tools, offer a resource library, and also provide a venue for a variety of related programming.

The Hand Tool Museum will be a reconstruction of a log barn that will be located on the Heritage Village at Big Creek site. Throughout the building process, community members will be invited to participate in hands-on opportunities to learn the art of logging, chinking and other historical construction techniques.

"The development of the Hand Tool Museum is an exciting project that will help our community celebrate our heritage and learn skills from masters in this field. Local craftsmen and carpenters are volunteering their time and talent to provide an unprecedented opportunity to attend demonstrations and receive instruction in using tools and methods utilized in the early 1900's," said Jane Stevenson, board member of the Door County Community Foundation.

Since 1929, the Door County Historical Society has worked to keep the story of Door County's past alive by providing historical, environmental and hands-on educational opportunities for learners of all ages. The Society provides these experiential learning opportunities through programming offered at sites such as the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse Museum and the Historical Village at Crossroads at Big Creek.

For more information regarding the programs and services provided by the Door County Historical Society, please call (920) 743-4945.

These are just a few of the recent Sustainability Grants awarded by the Community Foundation. Visit us online for more information about the Sustainability Grants program. If you'd like more information about how you can incorporate a gift to the Door County community through your estate plans, please do not hesitate to contact us or just call (920) 746-1786. Give today, or give your estate plans. Just remember to Give Door County!

Endowments in Action: Crossroads at Big Creek

The Community Foundation is honored to administer the Crossroads at Big Creek Endowment Fund and the Crossroads Ida Bay Preserve Endowment Fund.

Crossroads at Big Creek is an environmental preserve welcoming learners of all ages to programs in science, history and the environment. Begun in 1991 as a school forest, Crossroads is now a private donor-supported nonprofit.

While schools still use the Collins Learning Center and environmental preserve extensively, Crossroads also offers or host classes, lectures, workshops and conventions for learners of all ages in its lecture hall and other facilities. Visitors enjoy the environmental exhibits and each summer, the laboratory is utilized by researchers working on Great Lakes and water quality issues. Countless Door County residents and visitors use our trails for environmentally friendly recreation and exercise.

Crossroads also collaborates with the Door County Historical Society in offering experience-based programs in the Historical Village at the Crossroads and with the Door Peninsula Astronomical Society and School District of Sturgeon Bay in operating the Leif Everson Observatory and Stonecipher Astronomy Center.

Please consider incorporating gift to this endowment in your estate plans. Speak with your attorney, accountant or other estate planning professional. Or contact the Community Foundation and we'd be glad to help facilitate your generosity.

Many charities entrust the administration of their endowment funds to the Community Foundation. It's a safe and responsible way to manage endowed gifts, long-term assets or operational reserves.

The non-profit community also counts on the Community Foundation's planned giving expertise to facilitate gifts into their endowments. By aggregating these assets under the umbrella of the Community Foundation, economies of scale allow for a far more diversified investment portfolio and lower investment fees than any of the charities could achieve on their own.

Give Door County Publications Available for Download

The Community Foundation produces several publications and information sheets to help you craft a strategy to give back in the most effective - and tax efficient - way possible. Those documents are now available for anyone to download from GiveDoorCounty.org. Give Door County

You'll find publications like our our Guide to Endowments which highlights different charities so families have options to consider when giving back - either today or through their estate plans.

You can download an Introductory Brochure that explains the most popular charitable Funds at the Community Foundation - along with information sheets for Donor Advised Funds, Discretionary Funds, Scholarship Funds and more.

If you'd like a hard copy of any of these documents, just contact us and and we'd be glad to send them to you. And if you're an attorney, accountant, investment adviser, or trust officer, we'll send a supply of Guides, Introductory Brochures, or other materials (and display holders) for use in your office. Just contact us at the Community Foundation.

This is just another way the Community Foundation is encouraging people to give back to sustain the community we love!

The Door County Community Foundation is a catalyst, building and strengthening community by convening groups of people and organizations that want to make a difference in our world. We make it possible for a wide range of donors to meet present and future needs by creating charitable funds without incurring the costs of starting and administering a private foundation. The Door County Community Foundation was founded in 1999 and is governed by a local volunteer Board of Directors.

Inspiring People to Give Back to Sustain and Advance the Community We Love.