What Is a Stewards Fund and How Does It Work?

Maximize and Simplify Your Charitable Giving with Our Stewards Fund

Barnabas Foundation’s Stewards Fund, our donor-advised fund, is one of the best ways to maximize and simplify your charitable giving. The Stewards Fund allows you to make a one-time gift to Barnabas Foundation and decide later how you want to distribute the funds to your favorite charities. You receive an immediate tax benefit and have plenty of time to determine which charities you want to support.

You can establish a Stewards Fund account by contributing a number of different types of assets. There is no set-up fee for this account and you may gain other tax benefits as well, depending on the asset(s) you contribute.

How the Stewards Fund Works

The Barnabas Foundation Stewards Fund helps you streamline your charitable giving while providing a variety of tax advantages.

Step 1: Establish your account

When you are ready to open your Stewards Fund account, call Barnabas Foundation and our staff will guide you through the process and answer your questions about the Stewards Fund. Your call will be handled in strict confidence. Just complete the Stewards Fund Agreement online, then print, sign and send back to us by return mail to our headquarters in Tinley Park, IL. (We are required by law to keep your original signature on file).

Step 2: Fund your account

To fund your account, you will need to make an initial, irrevocable gift of $10,000 or more in cash, securities or other types of long-term appreciated assets. The most common choices are:

Cash
Marketable Securities
Real Estate
Privately-Held Stock

Next, determine if the account will be a joint or individual account and choose a name for the account. You receive an immediate tax deduction at the time you make your gift to Barnabas Foundation.

Step 3: For accounts over $50,000, you may recommend how you would like your funds to be invested.

If your initial gift is $50,000 or more, you may recommend how to allocate the funds in your account across our four different investment funds. Accounts under $50,000 are invested in our cash equivalent fund.

Step 4: Recommend how you would like to distribute your funds to your favorite charities.

Use our Online Grant Recommendations (distributions) form or fax/mail your Grant Recommendations form to us at our headquarters in Tinley Park. This is the last step prior to providing support to a charity.

Step 5: Leave the paperwork to us!

We prepare and send checks to your approved charities as identified in your Grants Recommendations. Statements are mailed to you for each month you have activity in your account. Your year-end statement summarizes all your charitable activity in one convenient report.