Caroline Fuerniss is a proud Birmingham native who’s always searching for ways to serve her community. She’s held leadership roles with the Crisis Center, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and Rotaract Club of Birmingham. Currently, she’s a member of the Ballet Guild of Birmingham and she’s on the Women’s Advisory Team at Cathedral Church of the Advent. But she wanted to do more.
Fuerniss turned to the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to amplify her service through charitable giving. Not only do she and her husband, Jim, have a Donor Advised Fund with the Community Foundation, but she also serves as chair of the Foundation’s Professional Advisor Committee.
We talked with Fuerniss about her work with the Community Foundation and her vision for the Greater Birmingham area. She shared why she feels charitable giving can be like a beautiful symphony.
Why did you choose to start a donor-advised fund through the Community Foundation?
On a very pragmatic level, a Donor Advised Fund allows me to take advantage of “bunching” our family’s charitable giving. Bunching is a tax strategy in which taxpayers intentionally load two or more years’ worth of tax-deductible expenses (like charitable gifts) into one calendar year, with the expectation that they will take the standard deduction in years without the expenses.
The benefit of the DAF is that the initial funding (and subsequent contributions) is deductible on the gift date, but we do not have to immediately deploy the funds to the ultimate nonprofit beneficiaries. Nor do we have to immediately name the nonprofit beneficiaries of our future grants. This, truly, is where the Community Foundation is invaluable.
The Birmingham nonprofit landscape is vast and constantly evolving, and the Community Foundation is far more attuned to the needs and organizations than my husband and I alone could ever be! In establishing a DAF, we can commit to building a charitable expectation for ourselves and legacy for our family. In establishing a DAF with the Community Foundation, we have found a partner who is committed to recognizing needs around Birmingham, analyzing and categorizing nonprofits that request funding, and forging partnerships between the people and entities that are working to solve some of the same problems.
What are some causes you plan to support through your fund?
I expect we will give a good bit of consideration to nonprofits that support education. My husband was a teacher when we first met and were married. We also find ourselves excited about causes that facilitate stable, healthy families and communities, and we feel that those needs must be met for educational initiatives to meaningfully take root.
Why did you decide also to be part of and at the helm of the Foundation’s Professional Advisor Committee?
When I was initially asked to serve, I jumped at the chance to be a part of the committee in order to gain a better understanding of our local nonprofit ecosystem, to remain current on charitable gifting structures, and to build relationships with other professionals that advise on the tax or legal perspectives of charitable gifting strategies. I knew that I could be better equipped to serve in that space.
What I quickly realized in serving on the committee was that I was far better served by making the right connections than by trying to amass all the charitable tools in my personal toolbelt. My best service is in knowing when to bring a partner or expert to the table, and which subject-matter expert is needed!
I am, obviously, a big fan of the Community Foundation both personally and professionally. As a leader of the Professional Advisor Committee, I am excited to continue to introduce other professionals to the organization. I want them, too, to know that we have a team of keen and thoughtful partners there that can help us steward the legacies of the families we work with.
What are the biggest challenges and what’s most rewarding about being a professional advisor?
Categorically, the biggest challenge for me is separating my own values and concerns from the values and concerns of the people I work with. That might look like me feeling less confident about the size of a gift relative to what I might consider sufficient reserves for someone’s own financial health. Or it may be that I wouldn’t prioritize the same causes.
As far as what is most rewarding, I recently read a beautiful portrayal of a symphony, and I think it is an apt metaphor: “in a symphony, no instrument plays all the time, but the ensemble continuously produces beautiful music.” Being a professional advisor for charitably-minded families is like being invited to hear the ensemble, to hear the accumulation and procession of individual notes — that is, the individual gifts — into movements.
What do you like most about Birmingham?
As a working mom of two young kids, my favorite thing about Birmingham is that my parents live here! Perhaps a better answer, though, is that I like that this is a city where families can lay down roots. We have economic opportunity along with a variety of cultural attractions. I can imagine that there is some correlation between that and Birmingham continuously being recognized for the relative generosity of its residents. It can take time for generosity to bear fruit, and a more transient community may not have the same motivation or patience.
What is your greatest hope for Birmingham?
My greatest hope would be that every child would graduate high school with the appropriate academic and technical skills necessary to afford them opportunities to pursue productive and meaningful work. As I envision it, there’s an implication in that hope that we have met the physical and emotional needs of the children and their families such that there is capacity for that educational success. I recognize that that is an incredibly idealistic hope. But ideals are worth pursuit. Even if our aspirations fall short of 100% success, any marginal improvement means that we’ve bettered the life and opportunity for at least one individual.
For more information about giving through the Community Foundation, visit Giving.
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