Helping charity begin at home
By DAN DEWITT
Published December 16, 2006
SPRING HILL - A group of local lawyers, accountants and bankers has formed an organization to address an issue that some people would rather avoid: how residents can allocate their money when they die.
The aim of the newly created agency, the Community Foundation of Hernando County, is to help people safely donate their estates to good causes, especially local charities.
"This allows an individual to establish a fund that will long outlive them," said Anesta Boice, trust officer with Capital City Trust Co. of Spring Hill and the foundation. "This allows them to continue giving in perpetuity."
The papers that created the local foundation were signed on Monday. Officially, the group in Hernando became part of the larger Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, which was founded in 1990.
The new group lets ordinary people set up funds that work on the same principle as large charitable foundations: Some of the proceeds from the donors' investments are reinvested, bolstering the original account; the rest is distributed to the charity of a donor's choice.
The new foundation also benefits local charities, because most of the money is expected to stay in Hernando County.
For example, 95 percent of the money spent by the Tampa Bay foundation has stayed in the region, Boice said.
Chris Bredbenner, vice president of Hernando-Pasco Hospice Inc., is familiar with the arrangement from working in Pasco and, previously, in Tampa.
"It's a great benefit to the community," he said. "We see a lot of people who want to contribute and don't know how, and this is a great way their gifts can benefit the community."
Teaming with the established Tampa Bay group will help the Hernando organization, Boice said, because it has a full-time staff to handle administrative duties.
Added Bredbenner: "You get the wealth management power of a large community foundation."
The Tampa Bay foundation has distributed $71.9-million in the past 16 years, said Beverly McLain, of the Tampa Bay foundation, and it currently manages about $130-million in assets.
It will give the Hernando organization $50,000 over the next two years to start its program.
It will also receive a more substantial start-up boost from a Hernando Beach resident who died last year. He left the Tampa Bay organization about $1-million with the stipulation that it be used for education.
Now that Hernando has a foundation, a decision will be made on how to use the money generated from that investment, and it will be spent, as the donor wanted, in his home county.
Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.