Greater Bluffton Community Fund

Posted by Dot Jeger 
 
Joe Fraser spoke to the Bluffton Rotary Club on Wednesday Feb. 6 about the newly formed Greater Bluffton Community Fund. In November 2007, a steering committee of local leaders was formed to explore the idea of launching a fund to build an endowment over time to make Bluffton a better place to live and play. Hilton Head Island has had such a fund for some years now and Bluffton has participated in that fund; however, the time seemed right to form a separate fund for Bluffton. The new fund will cover Southern Beaufort County, south of the Broad, and greater Bluffton, but will not cover Hilton Head Island or DaufuskieIsland.

The Greater Bluffton Community Fund will have one staff member with responsibility to help support fund-raising activities and write grants. There will also be an advisory committee with two primary functions: 1) grow fund and 2) provide advice on where grants should be made. There will between 9 and 13 members on the advisory committee, including one member selected by the Bluffton Rotary Club.

"This fund is a long-term investment in the community", according to Fraser and could be viewed as "building a community savings account". The fund is expected to grow through contributions, annual fund-raising events, legacies and estate planning contributions, the last of which is expected to be the most significant growth factor.   

Bluffton Rotary Club President Steve Tilton announced during the meeting that the Bluffton Rotary Board has voted to hand over a portion of Bluffton Rotary Club's charitable funds to the new Greater Bluffton Community Fund. We expect this to be a long-term relationship between the Bluffton Rotary Club and the Greater Bluffton Community Fund, which is why we'll have an appointment on the Advisory Committee. The expectation is that we'll keep some amount of our charitable funds in reserve, an amount to be determined, but giving the bulk of the funds we raise over to the Greater Bluffton Community Fund is a way to "parlay our money into bigger things", according to Tilton. "It can be a legacy for the club" and work for the "greater good of the community".  The Greater Bluffton Community Fund will be managed by the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry.