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
J. Luke Fargason CFP®

Navigate Wealth Management
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

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

Meet Outstanding Professional Advisor Leigh A. Kaylor

October 15, 2025

Leigh Kaylor, 2025 Outstanding Professional Advisor Throughout her career, Leigh A. Kaylor has provided legal counsel to numerous family foundations and has played a key role in establishing nonprofits and helping organizations obtain necessary tax exemptions — including her contributions during Super Bowl XXX in Arizona. There was a time when Kaylor thought she’d always work in the world of corporate tax. But eventually, estate planning and estate administration would win her over. Today, Kaylor is Of Counsel in Dentons Sirote’s Trusts, Estates and Wealth Preservation practice, based in Birmingham. A key strength of Kaylor’s practice is her ability to integrate charitable giving into estate plans, and doing so has become her passion.

Three clients. Three solutions. One common theme.

October 8, 2025

As the calendar year draws to a close, you’re likely well aware that charitable giving is not only important to your clients first and foremost as an act of generosity, but also as a powerful tool in tax planning.

Inherited IRAs: A charitable solution?

October 8, 2025

Remember the good old days when your clients could withdraw the money they inherited in their parents’ IRAs over the course of their lifetimes, thereby deferring the income tax for as long as possible? This so-called “stretch IRA” was largely eliminated by the SECURE Act of 2019, requiring most non-spouse beneficiaries to withdraw the entire inherited IRA within 10 years, rather than stretching withdrawals over their lifetime.

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.

J. Luke Fargason CFP®

Morgan Gearhart J.D.

Kami West CPA

Molly Womack CPA

Stephen Zito CPA

George Gaskin JD, CAP®

Resources for Advisors