Donor and Advisor Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

As a donor to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, you are entitled to:

• Receive information about the Community Foundation's administrative fees and its spending and investment policies
• Receive prompt gift acknowledgments
• Be listed as a donor in Community Foundation annual reports and other publications, unless you have requested to remain anonymous
• Be added to the Community Foundation's mailing list, unless you have requested no mail be sent to you
• Receive Community Foundation publications, including an annual report with financial information or information on grantmaking and/or the staff and Board of Trustees
Be assured that any information about the size and type of your gift will be held in confidence, and that your gift will be used for the purposes for which it was given

As a donor who establishes a separate fund, you have a right to:

• Select an appropriate name for the fund, or have it remain anonymous
• Receive fund-status reports

Unrestricted and Field-of-Interest Funds: If your fund is one you establish during your life, you may request periodic information regarding the grants that have been made from it. If the fund is created at your death, your immediate heirs will be afforded the same courtesy.

Designated/Agency Funds: If you established a fund for a designated charity, you may receive information on the value of the fund and the grants made to the designated charity. Likewise, the charity will receive an annual grant-award letter explaining the amount it will receive from the fund. If an agency establishes a fund for its benefit, that agency will receive annual information on the fund's value and the grants it can expect to receive. The agency will also receive information about all donors to the fund, including the amount of the gifts received, unless the donor asks to remain anonymous.

Donor Advised Funds: If you are the advisor to a donor advised fund, you may recommend grants from the fund, provided that any given grant is at least $250. Grants will be made to public charities in the United States, provided grants do not satisfy any legal obligation or pledge of you or the founder of the fund, and that no person receive any personal benefit because of the grants. You have the responsibility to understand that all grants from the fund must be reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees of the Community Foundation and must comply with federal tax laws.

If you are the founder of a donor advised fund, you have a right to name the advisor or successor-advisor to the fund during your lifetime, provided you have not given up that power, and further provided that all advisors do not consist of more than two generations of your family. If the advisors do not represent family members, you and the Community Foundation must address the questions of how long advisors may serve on the fund.

As a donor or advisor, you have a responsibility to:

• Provide the Community Foundation with your name and address, in a timely manner, so that proper tax acknowledgments may be prepared.
• Provide information with respect to changes in your address and name.
• Provide other information to the Community Foundation, in a timely manner, as needed, to ensure the proper, efficient and legal operation of funds of the Community Foundation.
• Provide information, as necessary, with respect to grants from your fund, including names and addresses of recommended grant recipients and information with respect to any personal benefit or pledge in connection with a grant or gift.
• Contact the Community Foundation prior to any solicitations being made on behalf of a fund in sufficient time as to permit the Community Foundation to determine that such solicitations meet all federal and state laws and regulations. Solicitations are generally not permitted for donor advised funds. The Community Foundation has the right to deny solicitations on behalf of the Community Foundation or any fund.