Cranberry Legacy Endowment

Who are the recipients of Cranberry Legacy Endowment funds? 

·       Nonprofit/Civic Organizations

·       Scholarships and Awards

·       Community Assets

·       Other Community Causes

Nonprofit & Civic Organizations

The primary reason for starting the Cranberry Legacy Endowment (CLE) was to create lifetime funds for the support of local nonprofit and civic organizations.  Successful communities are supported by four strong pillars: a sound business base; healthy public institutions; strong faith communities; and robust volunteer nonprofit and civic organizations.  Creating permanent endowments to benefit one or more nonprofit groups in Cranberry Township is the CLE’s ultimate goal.  Those nonprofit group can count on yearly income from those contributions, but can never touch the principal.

Why give to the Cranberry Legacy Endowments rather than directly to the Nonprofit group? Every cent of income generated by CLE’s fund investments goes to the nonprofit or civic group of your choice.   The CLE board consists of representatives from each of the nonprofit/civic groups for whom an endowment has been created.  

Second, nonprofit boards and their paid staffs often experience turnover from year to year.  Placing your endowment with CLE provides a level of protection to assure the principal is never touched in hard times or to used to fulfill a one-time need.  Your endowment with CLE will last a lifetime and more.

Third, your endowment with CLE will encourage others to follow suit.   Since your endowment will be recognized annually in our June Annual Report, you are helping to nurture the idea for others to do the same.  Each additional Legacy Endowment helps plant a seed to encourage another family or individual to follow your lead in the future.

Fourth, some nonprofit and civic groups are not 501(c)3 nonprofits in the eyes of the IRS.  Utilizing CLE will give you full tax deductions and opportunities per IRS rules and regulations.

Finally, we can offer professional administration and investment expertise that might not be available for an individual investment directly with the nonprofit group.  See the Administration/Investment section for more details.

That’s why we encourage you to give to CLE directly in cooperation with the nonprofit or civic organizations you care about.  There are other reasons, too.  We would be happy to discuss Legacy Endowments and their mechanics with you in full detail to make clear how you your gift will be used according to your wishes.

 

What nonprofit and Civic groups can I give to?

We recognize all Cranberry Township Community Chest (CTCC) organizations like the Library, Rotary, Lions, Miracle League, The Chamber and dozens more.  To see the complete list go to  http://www.ctcchest.org/groups.asp .

If a group you’re considering isn’t on the list, let’s meet to discuss if that group would qualify as a CLE recipient.

Scholarships

Scholarships
Creating a named scholarship through the Cranberry Legacy Endowment is one way you can help current students and leave a legacy for the future.  It's also a very meaningful way to honor family members and friends.  Here’s a Step-by-Step guideline:

STEP 1: Determine Type of Scholarship Fund

Endowed Scholarships
Endowed scholarship funds are designed to be permanent and can be created with gifts totaling a at least $10,000 at the outset or with an initial commitment of $5,000 that is added to over time until the $10,000 level is attained.  A $10,000 endowed scholarship will award an approximately cash distribution of $500.  A separate Annual contribution allows your endowed scholarship to increase each year. The principal of the fund is invested to produce income, and an annual award is made to the student(s).  The principal remains untouched.

Type of Scholarships
Is this scholarship for a specific university or college?  Is it for a certain major?  We also administer scholarships within the Seneca Valley area for home school, private school, and public sector institutions at the high school level.  Please review the establishing criteria below.  

STEP 2: Establish Scholarship Criteria
As a scholarship donor, you choose the name of the scholarship as well as the criteria. For most  scholarships, we work with the administration of Seneca Valley so that they are awarded to deserving students based upon area of interest, geographical origin, leadership potential, merit, financial need, academic achievement and/or other criteria.  For scholarships directed specifically to Butler County Community College, we would let the BC3 administration select the candidate based on your criteria.  All of this can be determined during the scholarship setup.

STEP 3: Administration of Scholarship Funds
Typically, a school-based selection committee reviews the scholarship applications submitted by students and selects the most deserving recipient(s) based on the donor-established criteria.  Benefactors of a scholarship fund are notified annually when the scholarship recipient(s) have been selected and are informed of their names and hometowns, as well as the amount of the award.  Recipients often write a thank-you note to the donor, and in some cases, the recipient and donor are able to meet.

Tax Benefits of Funding a Scholarship
An outright gift in the form of cash or appreciated securities will allow you to receive immediate tax benefits in the year you make your gift to The Cranberry Legacy Endowment. In the case of appreciated securities, you may also avoid capital gains taxes.

You can also provide for scholarships in your estate plans. Estate gifts or planned gifts are an easy way to establish a scholarship without affecting your current income or assets.

 


Community Assets

Make Cranberry even better!
How can you leave a Legacy that makes your community better?  Create a planned community asset that future generations will enjoy.  By establishing your plans through Cranberry Legacy Endowments, your investment can not only improve our community but could be tax deductable and utilized for estate planning. This is a great opportunity to create something new or establish memorial/naming rights to an existing asset.

Ideas!
The possibilities are unlimited.  Here are some ideas based on existing assets and new assets:

Existing Assets: Many assets that are currently in use are available for improvement and can be used as memorials or given naming rights. Many of Cranberry’s ball fields are available for businesses or individuals. Trails, sled riding hill, shelters, tree groves, section of the library, gardens, and more can all be enhanced with your endowment and used as a memorial through a Legacy Endowment.

New Assets: Creating new assets to implement the master plan of Cranberry’s public parks is just one possibility – from new shelters, fountains, playgrounds, and sculptures to creating entire new parks.  They can also include our library, fire department, school district, and BC3 in Cranberry.

Funding new assets:
All of the methods used to fund Legacy Endowments are available to fund community assets.  In a few cases, when an irrevocable trust or CLE-owned insurance policies are utilized, the asset can be built in advance of distributions.  Each asset is different in funding, but what is consistent – beyond the direct cost of the asset – is the establishment of an Endowment to support the maintenance of the asset, typically around 25% of its original cost.  So if you created a new asset which cost $200,000, it would also require another 25% ($50,000) to keep that asset in good repair.  Each year the endowment would pay into a sinking fund for any maintenance, insurance or repair costs – assuring your asset is designed to last forever.  For smaller assets like memorial park benches, you would pay the asset cost ($500 for a bench, for example) and then fund a CLE endowment with a minimum of $10,000. That endowment would assure eventual replacement of the bench, but it can also be used for other distributions that do not have to be specifically for the park.

Funding Existing Assets:
Funds to support existing assets will be used by the Cranberry Legacy Endowment to benefit the group that owns those assets.  The benefit of working with CLE rather than the owner of the asset is that you know the endowment cannot be touched by the recipient’s board of directors and will provide income forever.  In addition, your Legacy Endowment will be recognized annually in our Annual Report and encourage others to follow suit.

Questions and answers:

·      I want to establish an endowment for naming rights with a nonprofit that does not want the money going to Cranberry Legacy Endowment. Will you still recognize this donation?
We recognize that many nonprofit groups have need for immediate use of the capital to build their project, but we will only recognized donations made directly to CLE.

·      Why does buying a park bench via CLE cost $10,500?
Our real focus is establishing Community Endowments and providing choices in doing so.  You can easily purchase a park bench or other assets directly through the township at face value.

·      How can you offer Township assets to private donors?
We have an agreement with the Township; their relationship with “Friends of the Park,” a nonprofit group, allows us to offer you tax deductions for your contributions consistent with IRS law.  Annual proceeds then go into a fund that supports this asset or benefits that specific park use.  That money is made available to the Township to use for this purpose.

Other Community Causes

Your endowment can support a wide range of human and community services. For example, helping assure meal deliveries to the elderly, supporting a drug prevention program, providing certain types of material to our library, to providing free medical help.  Your Legacy Endowment will be matched with the organization which can best provide that service; they will receive an annual contribution from your fund. In addition, we will continue to make sure that your funds are being used for the purpose you established.

Cranberry Legacy Endowments are flexible in design with the goal of helping people and organizations in our community.  We welcome your ideas about benefitting causes that are important to you. Please contact us at question@cranberrylegacyendowments.org with your questions and suggestions.