Any experienced nonprofit executive or board member worth their salt, as well as donors who are asked to support those nonprofits, understand that capital campaigns are incomplete unless they include raising money for an endowment that covers the cost to maintain the building.

This is the “no elephants without hay” principle, which encourages the nonprofit to do more than raise money to buy an elephant, but to provide for its care and feeding too.

Experienced donors expect that a proper plan for a new building, idea or program includes a source of reliable income to cover ongoing, routine expenses and to prepare for the unexpected.

But as obvious and practical as raising endowment may seem, it is often overlooked by nonprofits large and small.

There are more than a dozen active nonprofit capital campaigns in Adams County today. If you are a donor, and a nonprofit asks you to support a capital campaign, ask about the plan to maintain the building or sustain the programs that will happen inside the space. Does the nonprofit have an endowment goal as part of the larger fundraising campaign? Does that plan go beyond “if we raise enough for the building, then we will raise money for endowment”? Too often, plans that overlook endowment building leave the nonprofit scrambling to cover an increase in expenses they did not plan for.

To keep the doors open, nonprofits should be asking you not only for annual gifts to support operations and capital gifts to pay for building and long-term programs, but also gifts to endowment to sustain what you are helping them to build.

At this year’s Giving Spree, the Community Foundation is offering donors the choice to support any of the 115 participating nonprofits with a gift for today, or a “forever gift”—a gift to an endowment fund that will support the nonprofits you choose for decades to come. Giving Spree forever gifts will be invested by the Community Foundation for long-term growth and each year 4.5% of your gift will be sent to the nonprofit you name in your Giving Spree gift.

The Community Foundation’s endowment is invested for the long-term with an annualized return of 9.6% net of investment fees since its inception since 2009. You can view our investment policy, including our asset allocation and targets here on our website.

An endowment gift does not necessarily have to support a building. The grant an endowment fund produces each year can be used to sustain a nonprofit’s operations, provide steady income to expand programs when demand increases, or serve as bridge funding when a pandemic forces the organization to suspend fundraising for months at a time.

This year, we encourage you to participate in the Giving Spree on November 7. And when you complete your Giving Spree donation form, consider checking the “forever” box to provide the nonprofits you love with some much-needed hay. It’s a gift they’ll never forget.

Which Adams County nonprofits will you support with a forever gift at this year’s Giving Spree? I’d like to know. Please contact me at 717-337-0060 or rserpe@adamscountycf.org.

Ralph M. Serpe is President & CEO of the Adams County Community Foundation.