When Kempner, a 59-year-old retired corporate executive (he was a vice-president of Gillette and chief executive of LoJack, the car-security company), makes grants, he does so through the Kempner Family Foundation.

Kempner's "foundation" is actually a donor-advised fund, an account designed for philanthropic giving that is administered by a charity. Some of the largest donor-advised funds are administered by charities set up by financial-services firms, such as the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, the Schwab Charitable Fund and the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program.

Gifts of stock and property also receive favorable tax treatment: With a donor-advised fund, you can deduct the value of such gifts up to 30% of your AGI, compared with up to 20% with a private foundation.

Managers of donor-advised funds point out that the funds are also less expensive to run than small family foundations. That said, the largest donor-advised funds typically grant 20% of their assets annually; funds sponsored by community foundations give about 15% of their assets each year.

Because donor-advised funds have so many advantages, Libbey expects a 40% increase in the number of foundations that Fidelity will convert to funds in 2009 compared with last year.

The Los Altos Community Foundation plans to launch a new community program, Family Giving Project, a four-part series that will provide children in grades 1 through 7 and their parents the tools for lifelong community philanthropic engagement.

LACF will match the fee and return $100 to each family at the end of the course to be used as the families first post-course giving project.

This way, the children and their parents can put into action what they've learned and have a chance to share where and why they decided to give their $100, said Nancy Lippe, LACF program officer.

The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, which helps fund dozens of nonprofit agencies and programs throughout the area, has created a different organization designed to appeal to young Central Virginia donors.

The fund targets Central Virginians in their 20s, 30s and 40s and gives them a different way to invest in their community at the same time they network with peers.

The whole concept is that [members] get to meet each other, network, learn about different organizations in the community and leverage their contributions by pooling together and giving back, explained Holly Hatcher, of the community foundation.

The community foundation already gave the future fund its first run at a kickoff membership event and fundraiser on June 16 at The Local.

Administered by the community foundation, the fund would return 99 percent of contributions back to the community with only 1 percent used to cover administrative costs.

The Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County seeks nominations for its Philanthropist of the Year Award. Foundation also seeks nominations for its Volunteer of the Year and Youth Philanthropist of the Year awards.

Rollstone Bank & Trust recently donated $5,000 to the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts, which helps 33 cities and towns in the area.

The Foundation was born out of a small group of individuals looking at ways to further build overall charitable giving. As a local non-profit organization, the Foundation is an ideal vehicle for people to give back to the community. It provides donors with a great deal of flexibility while maximizing tax advantages.

Cleveland continues to have rich ethnic diversity in addition to a deep-rooted social legacy of philanthropy. Wealth generated from our once booming industries has contributed to our impressive cultural institutions (world class art museum and orchestra, among many others). The Cleveland Foundation is the oldest and second largest community foundation in the nation, and we have a slew of other local foundations that contribute to many non-profits in town.

We have a strong network of excellent non-profits that are committed to the social, environmental and economic sustainability of our city. These non-profits came together to create the government position of Program Director for the City of Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability, Andrew Watterson.

According to a story on www.mediabistro.com, Walter Cronkite’s family is asking that “donations be sent to The Walter and Betsy Cronkite Fund in care of the Austin Community Foundation.

They will distribute the funds as a tribute to their parents’ wishes and values: local and national charities they supported, among them education (including sailing), journalism, basic needs, health care and research, community organizations, planned parenthood and animals.”

Organizers of the African American Empowerment Fund of Delaware (AAEFD), a new philanthropic initiative of the Delaware Community Foundation, will officially launch the fund in Sussex County at the Sussex County Association of Realtors (SCAOR), 23407 Park Ave., in Georgetown, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The effort mirrors the successful Fund For Women, a Delaware Community Foundation fund created to improve the lives of women and girls in Delaware.

Lee County's community-based organization, Envision Opelika, has announced the implementation on the Community Foundation of East Alabama, Inc.

"The basis of the foundation is to build funds for philanthropic purposes and non-profit organizations based on identified community needs," board member Barbara Patton said. The needs will be changing, and the community foundation will be here."

The community foundation will work to preserve resources for different types of scholarships: the arts, social philanthropic groups and other types of organizations.

"We don't have any specific organizations chosen just now," said Dora James, Chairperson of the CFEA.

James also said the most successful community foundations were those who reached out beyond just one county to their whole area.

It wasn’t a day at the beach that occupied Karen Troop’s hot Saturday, but the Simi Valley Realtor probably had more fun working in the warehouse sorting goods for a new thrift store than if she’d hit the waves.

The Simi Valley store, Treasure Hunters Boutique, will open in mid-September and will serve as a fundraising arm for the Simi Valley Community Foundation, a nonprofit organization raising money to help the city’s needy and address other community needs.