Professional Advisors

As a professional who advises clients about charitable giving, you play a key role in philanthropy. The Community Foundation is a valuable resource and partner when you need personalized, flexible, high-impact tools to help your clients achieve their goals for giving. If your client is thinking about making a complex charitable gift today or leaving a charitable legacy for the future, we offer a variety of options. With smart planning, you can help your clients make gifts that will benefit the causes they care about throughout the greater Birmingham region and beyond for years to come.

Our goal is to serve as your philanthropic consultant, a valuable member of your team helping you achieve your clients’ goals. You can meet with us one-on-one or invite your client to join us for an obligation-free consultation.

Schedule a consultation

A partnership with the Community Foundation is:

Knowledgeable & Confidential

We offer cost-free, confidential resources – including community expertise – for charitable planning.

Flexible

We offer tools for making lifetime and legacy gifts and managing gifts of complex assets.

Trusted

We offer personal, local, high-quality donor services that enhance your relationship with your clients.

Types of Funds

We work with individuals, families, or businesses, and the professional advisors they rely on, to create a component fund that meets their charitable impact objectives and our community’s needs. Except as noted, a component fund may be opened at the Community Foundation with a minimum investment of $15,000.

Community Funds: Community Funds are permanent resources dedicated to meet the needs of Greater Birmingham now, and forever. Community Funds are ideal for people who want to give back to the community they love by creating a fund to respond to community needs as they change over time. The Community Foundation uses Community Funds for its competitive and proactive grantmaking and initiatives.
Field of Interest Funds: Field of Interest Funds are permanent resources dedicated to impact the donor’s chosen areas of interest. Field of Interest Funds are well-suited for people who want to focus their giving on one or more targeted needs or issues. The Community Foundation uses Field of Interest Funds to make grants to organizations working on the field of interest identified by the donor. Donors may establish a named fund with a minimum gift of $15,000; and may work with the Community Foundation to establish an entirely customized grantee selection process with a minimum gift of $500,000.
Community Catalyst Funds: Community Catalyst Funds are philanthropic venture funds that allow donors to partner with the Community Foundation to identify and fund catalytic projects in the Greater Birmingham region. Donors who establish Catalyst Funds work with other Catalyst Fund donors to recommend the unique funding opportunities poised to catalyze growth and energize this community. Donors may establish a Community Catalyst Fund with a minimum gift of $50,000.
Donor Advised Funds: A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) keeps the donor directly involved with grantmaking by serving as a fund advisor and recommending grants from the DAF to the donor’s favorite charities. DAF donors also have the opportunity to co-invest with the Community Foundation in its competitive grantmaking. By establishing a DAF, a donor leverages the professional services of the Community Foundation, including extensive knowledge of local nonprofit partners, to simplify giving while amplifying impact.
Designated Funds: A Designated Fund permanently supports the work of specific charities chosen by the donor. If the designated charity ever ceases to operate, the fund will uphold the donor’s intent by supporting other organizations that pursue a similar mission.
Agency Endowment Funds: A nonprofit organization may create an Agency Endowment at the Community Foundation. By using the professional services of the Community Foundation, nonprofit boards can trust that their assets will be carefully and securely maintained so they can focus on the organization’s mission. Learn more.
Scholarship Funds: Scholarship Funds provide tuition assistance to qualified people. Donors may participate in the Community Foundation Scholarship Pool with a gift of $15,000 or endow a separate scholarship targeting a school or population of their choice with a minimum gift of $200,000.

Professional Advisor Committee

The Community Foundation recognizes the need to equip the professional advisor community to better serve their clients’ philanthropic goals. The Professional Advisor Committee strives to increase the quality and quantity of connections between the Foundation and the professional advisor community, with the ultimate goal of increasing the value and scope of gifts benefiting our community. To serve as qualified ambassadors to their peers and advocates for the Foundation, PA Committee members are given a deeper understanding of charitable giving strategies, the Foundation’s operations and impact, and our local nonprofit community.

Caroline Fuerniss CFP®

(Chair) Double Oak Wealth Management Group
Caroline Yeilding CFP®

SteelCrest Wealth Management Group
Harris Anthony Esq.

Maynard Nexson
Katie Barnes Esq.

Dominick Feld Hyde
John Beatty CFP®

The Welch Group
O. Cobb Bostick Jr., Esq.

Bradley
Morgan Gearhart J.D.

Argent Trust Company
Kami West CPA

Kassouf & Co.
Molly Womack CPA

Borland Benefield
Stephen Zito CPA

Pearce Bevill

Questions? Please contact George Gaskin, JD, CAP® for a confidential consultation to explore the options available to your clients.

George Gaskin JD, CAP®

Senior Director of Gift Planning and Compliance

Phone

205-327-3828

Email

ggaskin@cfbham.org

Resources for Advisors

It Matters Where a Donor-Advised Fund is Managed

All donor-advised funds (DAFs) are not created equal. Unlike DAFs managed by commercial investment firms, only a community foundation can ensure that administrative fees directly support transformational work in donors’ own backyards. At the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, philanthropic dollars work harder — with the grants fundholders recommend and also by the administrative fees that get reinvested right here in Birmingham to support the Community Foundation’s strategic initiatives.

Learn more

Administrative Fee Schedule

Download and print a PDF of Administrative Fees to share with your clients.

Administrative Fee Policy for Component Funds
The Community Foundation charges no setup fees or out-of-pocket expenses to establish a component fund. Administrative fees are calculated based on a fund’s average daily balance on an annual basis, and fees are assessed to the fund at the beginning of each year. Donors wishing to establish a pass-through fund at the Community Foundation will be charged a fee of 2% of all contributions to the fund (to be paid on an appropriate schedule determined in consultation with the donor).

In all cases, the minimum administrative fee charged to each individual fund will be $250.

Investment management fees are also deducted from each individual fund at various times of the year. Investment management and custodial fees, while they may vary, usually average between 0.10 – 0.60% of the fund’s value.

The administrative fee schedule for each individual type of fund is as follows:
Community & Field of Interest Funds
Minimum balance: $15,000
1.15% on the balance of the fund
Customized Field of Interest Funds
Minimum balance: $500,000
1.50% on $500,000-$2 million in the fund
1.25% on $2 million to $3 million in the fund
1.15% on $3 million to $5 million in the fund
Fees on balances above $5 million determined on an individual basis
Community Catalyst Funds
Minimum balance: $50,000
1.00% on the balance of the fund
Designated & Donor Advised Funds
Minimum balance $15,000
1.00% on the first $1 million in the fund
0.75% on the next $1 million in the fund
0.50% on the next $1 million in the fund
0.25% on the remaining balance in the fund, up to $10 million
Fees on balances above $10 million determined on an individual basis
Agency Endowment Funds
Minimum balance: $15,000
0.75% on the first $1 million in the fund
0.60% on the remaining balance in the fund, up to $10 million
Fees on balances above $10 million determined on an individual basis
Scholarship Funds (See Scholarship Program Guidelines)
Minimum balance-$15,000: Option #1-General Scholarship Pool
2.0% on the balance in the fund
Minimum balance-$200,000: Option #2-Custom Scholarship Fund
2.0% on the balance in the fund
Minimum balance-$15,000: Option #3- Designated Fund to support scholarships
Normal tiered fee same as for Designated Fund (see Designated Funds above-begins at 1%)

Approved by the Board of Directors on August 21, 2025

Fund Types One-Pager

Download and print a PDF of Fund Types to share with your clients.

Legal Name and Tax ID

The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham

63-1209631

Good news keeps coming: Retirement plans and charitable giving

June 24, 2026

You’ve no doubt noticed that Qualified Charitable Distributions (“QCDs”) continue to gain traction as one of the most practical and effective charitable planning tools for clients over age 70 ½. By allowing eligible clients to transfer funds directly from an IRA to a qualified charity without recognizing the distribution as taxable income, QCDs can help reduce adjusted gross income while supporting charitable priorities. For many clients — especially those who do not itemize deductions — a QCD is particularly appealing.

Split-interest charitable gifts: Need-to-know FAQs

June 24, 2026

As charitable planning conversations become more sophisticated, many advisors are revisiting so-called “split-interest gifts” to help clients balance philanthropic goals with income needs. Two of the most common strategies — a charitable gift annuity (CGA) and a charitable remainder trust (CRT) — can both provide clients with lifetime income while ultimately benefiting charitable causes. Despite their similarities, the two vehicles function very differently and may serve distinct client needs.

OBBBA and Charitable Giving in 2026: What Advisors Need to Tell Clients Now.

May 5, 2026

For many attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, the tax law changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are old news. That is not the case for many of your clients! While you’ve been busy reading dozens of articles and evaluating how the changes will impact your clients, many of your clients are just now learning about the changes, especially as issues came to the forefront for them during tax season. Even if you’ve been talking with clients about the changes for months, don’t stop. For many clients, now is the first time they’ll really be listening.

Rare but useful: Planning with charitable lead trusts

May 5, 2026

“Charitable lead trust” is far from a household word, and you might not run across the need for one very often in your practice. They sure do come in handy in certain client situations, though. At the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, we are happy to establish a donor-advised fund or another type of fund to serve as the income beneficiary of a charitable lead annuity trust, or “CLAT,” established by a client.

Professional Advisors

A partnership with the Community Foundation is:

Knowledgeable & Confidential

Flexible

Trusted

Types of Funds

Professional Advisor Committee

Caroline Fuerniss CFP®

Caroline Yeilding CFP®

Harris Anthony Esq.

Katie Barnes Esq.

John Beatty CFP®

O. Cobb Bostick Jr., Esq.

Morgan Gearhart J.D.

Kami West CPA

Molly Womack CPA

Stephen Zito CPA

George Gaskin JD, CAP®

Resources for Advisors