The Miami County Community Foundation holds and invests charitable funds for the people of this county — so a gift made today is still working for Miami County in fifty years.
Those gifts become the funds we hold and the scholarships and grants we award. Separately, the Foundation leads eCommunity, Miami County’s locally controlled loan fund for new and growing businesses.
There are seven ways to give to the Foundation. Most people arrive wanting one of three things.
Make a gift to an existing fund or to the General Fund, by card or by check. It goes to work this year.
Best for: one-time gifts, memorial gifts, Match Day
Open a named fund — for a cause, a school, a scholarship, or in someone’s memory. You choose what it supports; we handle the rest, permanently.
Best for: a family legacy, a memorial that lasts, an endowment for your nonprofit
A bequest, a retirement account, a life insurance policy. Costs nothing now and can carry real tax advantages.
Best for: estate planning, reducing tax on an IRA, a gift larger than you could make today
Open any one for the detail. If you’d rather just talk it through, that works too — call Tammy.
The simplest way to help, today.
Give to an existing fund or to the Miami County Community Foundation General Fund. Card payments go through PayPal — you don’t need a PayPal account.
Prefer a check? Make it payable to Miami County Community Foundation, write the fund name in the memo line, and mail it to:
Miami County Community Foundation
c/o First Option Bank
702 Baptiste Dr, PO Box B
Paola, KS 66071
Card gifts arrive net of PayPal’s processing fee. Checks arrive whole — worth knowing on a larger gift.
Put your name — or someone else’s — on something permanent.
You decide what it supports. The Foundation handles the investment, the accounting, the compliance and the grantmaking, in perpetuity. You keep advisory privileges over where the grants go.
Read the full guide: what an endowment is · donor-advised fund vs private foundation
| Fund type | What it does | Typical donor |
|---|---|---|
| Donor Advised | You recommend grants over time; you take the tax deduction the year you give | A family that wants to give thoughtfully, not all at once |
| Field of Interest | Supports a cause you name — education, health, animal welfare, poverty — not a single organization | Someone who cares about a problem more than a particular charity |
| Scholarship | You set the name, the eligibility and the award. We can run the applications and selection too | A family honoring someone; a business investing in local students |
| Agency Endowment | A nonprofit's own permanent fund; we distribute the annual earnings back to them | A local nonprofit that wants a stable base |
| Designated | Names specific beneficiaries up front — a church, a college, a nonprofit | Someone who already knows exactly who they want to support |
Endowed funds start at $10,000. Expendable funds start at $1,000. The Foundation’s fee is 2% — 1% administrative and 1% community support. Setting a fund up takes seven to ten business days. Tammy Booe can talk through which kind fits what you have in mind: (913) 404-7287 or info@micocf.org. If a scholarship is what you have in mind, there is a fuller guide to how to start a scholarship fund.
Cash, stock, bonds, real estate.
Cash is the simplest way to start or add to a fund. But it’s often not the smartest.
Appreciated stock or bonds. Give the shares rather than selling them and you avoid tax on the appreciation and deduct the full market value. The Foundation, as a tax-exempt charity, sells them without paying that tax either. On stock you’ve held a long time, this is a materially better gift for the same cost to you.
Real estate. Can be given in several ways that avoid tax on the appreciation. You’ll need a qualified appraisal to establish the value — we can point you to the process.
All gifts qualify for the maximum charitable benefit allowed under state and federal law.
Read the full guide: donating stock · real estate donations
The gift that costs nothing today.
A bequest lets you make a significant gift without touching your finances now. Name the Foundation in your will or trust — as a beneficiary of a specific amount, a percentage, or what remains after your family is provided for. You can direct it to an existing fund or establish your own.
Your attorney will need the legal name, address and EIN — they’re all in the advisor section below, along with suggested clause language.
If you’d like to name a fund that doesn’t exist yet, call us first — we can have the agreement ready so the language is exact.
Read the full guide: estate planning checklist · trusts and bequests
Usually the most tax-efficient asset you can give.
Retirement assets are among the worst things to leave your heirs and among the best things to leave charity. Your children pay income tax on distributions from your 401(k), IRA or profit-sharing plan. A charity does not.
If you intend to leave something to charity, the efficient move is generally to leave the taxable retirement assets to the charitable cause and the tax-free assets to your family.
If you’re over 70½: the QCD. A Qualified Charitable Distribution moves money straight from your IRA to the Foundation without it ever counting as income. It can satisfy your Required Minimum Distribution and may preserve tax credits an RMD would otherwise cost you.
Naming the Foundation as a beneficiary of a retirement account takes one form from your plan administrator. No attorney, no cost.
The Foundation isn’t a tax advisor — please confirm the details with yours.
Read the full guide: qualified charitable distributions · leaving an IRA to charity
A large gift from a small annual cost.
Life insurance turns modest premiums into a significant future gift, with tax benefits you get now.
Give the policy. Make the Foundation the owner and irrevocable beneficiary, and deduct approximately the lesser of cost or fair market value. If it’s paid up, the deduction is immediate. If you’re still paying premiums, each payment is deductible as you make it.
Or just name us as beneficiary. Keep ownership, keep access to the cash value, keep the right to change your mind. The Foundation receives the proceeds at your death.
Either way, we can establish a fund in your name, your family’s name, or in honor of anyone you choose — and grant from it in perpetuity, publicly or anonymously, as you prefer.
Read the full guide: donating life insurance
For the person, not the occasion.
A memorial gift keeps someone’s name doing work in the county they lived in. When a family is facing a hundred decisions at once, this is a way to answer “what would they have wanted” that lasts longer than flowers.
Honor gifts do the same for someone still here — a milestone birthday, an anniversary, a retirement, a thank-you. They get to see the result.
Either can go to an existing fund, or become a new named fund of its own. We’ll help you decide which fits.
Read the full guide: memorial donations · in lieu of flowers
Bring us in early. We work alongside your client’s existing advisors — we don’t replace them.
It depends which kind of fund you choose. An endowed fund starts at $10,000. The balance stays invested permanently and never falls below what you put in — you grant out the earnings under a 5% spending policy, so a $10,000 fund makes about $500 available each year. An expendable fund starts at $1,000 and can be spent all the way down; once it is, the fund closes.
2% — a 1% administrative fee plus a 1% community support fee. The community support portion is what funds the Foundation’s own operations.
Seven to ten business days. Tammy Booe can start the conversation whenever you are ready — (913) 404-7287 or info@micocf.org.
Yes — any fund can receive additional gifts at any time, from you or from anyone else. Memorial funds in particular often grow for years as friends and family contribute.
No. Stock, bonds, real estate, life insurance and retirement assets are all accepted, and several are more tax-efficient than cash.
Yes. Grants can be made in a fund’s name without your name attached.
It continues. That’s the point of a permanent fund — the Foundation keeps investing it and granting from it under the terms you set.
Yes. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-exempt since November 2007, EIN 47-0935217.
No pressure, no minimum to talk. Tammy will walk you through what fits your situation — and tell you honestly if the Foundation isn’t the right home for what you have in mind.
