The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund (“Gift Fund”) and Campus Compact, announced they are jointly launching a new program – Students4GivingSM – that seeks to inspire young people to get more involved with philanthropy. As a part of the program, five academic institutions – including California State University, Fresno – and their participating students will each receive oversight of a $15,000 donor-advised fund to be used for future grant recommendations within their communities.
Thirty-five universities and colleges nationwide submitted proposals and competed for five winning slots and the chance to participate in the new pilot program. In addition to Fresno State, the others selected are Boston University, Portland Community College in Portland, Ore.; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash.
Financed by Fidelity, the program provides each selected school with a Gift Fund Giving Account® seeded with $15,000 that will be overseen by the students participating in their respective school’s 2008 winter/spring nonprofit and philanthropy courses.
Designed to advance philanthropic education efforts at colleges and universities across the country, the program also will encourage community-based learning and partnership with local nonprofit organizations.
“Students enrolled in our sociology class “Philanthropy and Grant Making” this coming spring will have the hands-on opportunity to recommend grant awards after investigating community needs, researching nonprofit organizations that meet those needs and developing a request for proposals (RFP) to fund specific programs,” said Dr. Matthew Jendian, director of the American Humanics Program at Fresno State.
“This philanthropy project serves to cultivate students’ understanding and appreciation for the importance of a thriving philanthropic culture in the San Joaquin Valley and influence their future participation in the nonprofit sector, be it as a professional, volunteer, donor and/or board member.”
David Giunta, president of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund., said, “Students will make recommendations about what causes and qualified public charities to support and apply best practices for recommending how the monies are invested to potentially grow the Giving Account balance for future charitable grants.”
Maureen F. Curley, president, Campus Compact, said, “The giving initiatives administered through the Students4Giving program illustrate the importance our colleges and universities place on preparing students to tackle today’s most pressing social issues. We are grateful to Fidelity and the Gift Fund for creating this opportunity for students to support their communities while learning about project management, grant research and fundraising strategies that will create a legacy of giving for the future.”
The Gift Fund and Campus Compact will provide the selected schools with access to charitable planning consultants, as well as guidance and education on charitable giving topics, civic volunteerism and giving through a donor advised fund throughout the semester.
As one of the nation’s largest public charities, the Gift Fund has granted more than $7 billion to more than 113,000 nonprofits organizations since its inception in 1991 The Gift Fund teamed with Campus Compact, a leader in advancing civic and community work among higher education institutions, to implement this new pilot program. Campus Compact works with college and university presidents, faculty and staff to ensure that students graduate with the skills and knowledge to contribute to the common good.
About Donor Advised Funds
A donor advised fund program allows individuals, private foundations, and business entities to make irrevocable contributions to the public charity sponsoring the program which are then allocated to a specific account, the individual “donor advised fund,” from which donor advisors or account holders may then recommend grants to qualified grant recipients on their own timetable. When donors make contributions, they may in turn be eligible to take tax deductions. They also receive and obtain certain privileges, including that of recommending grants from the donor advised fund to IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charities and certain private operating foundations.
Contributions to a charity with a donor advised fund program are often invested by the Trustees of the charity in investments provided by the program at the recommendation of the donors, which can help allow donors to potentially give more support to the causes they care about. The charity will generally perform due diligence to verify that each nonprofit organization to which a grant is recommended is an IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charity or qualified private operating foundation, and will further verify that that the grant is compliant with the policies of the charity and its donor advised fund program.
About Campus Compact
Campus Compact is a coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents – representing some 6 million students – who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national association dedicated to this mission, Campus Compact is a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life. Through the organization’s national office and 32 state offices, Campus Compact provides training, research, resources, and advocacy to help colleges and universities educate a new generation of responsible leaders. For more information, visit http://www.compact.org/.
About Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
The Fidelity® Charitable Gift FundSM is one of the nation’s largest public charities and has the largest donor-advised fund program in the country
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is one of the world’s largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $3.4 trillion, including managed assets of more than $1.6 trillion as of October 31, 2007. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to more than 24 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, the largest mutual fund supermarket and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.
CONTACT: Fidelity Corporate Communications at (617) 563-5800 or Campus Compact Communications at (401) 867-3950
