Kinderhaven establishes ICF agency fund

COEUR d’ALENE – The board of Kinderhaven, a Sandpoint shelter for children, recently established an agency fund at ICF that will provide income to Kinderhaven forever.

Kinderhaven is for kids who have been removed from their homes but are not yet assigned to foster care. Before it opened in 1996, kids removed from families often had to go to juvenile detention or jail until a foster family could be found to help them. The average stay is six to eight months, but some have stayed up to two years.

Because it works with children in crisis, maintaining a stable, home-like atmosphere is crucial. After school, everyone has a snack and works on homework. The all-female staff prepares meals and everyone sits at the dining room table and eats together. Children are given chores depending on their ages. Maintaining this nurturing atmosphere costs between $17,000-$20,000 each month.

Kinderhaven Board Member Rob Wakefield, who also serves as the finance committee chair, said there were two reasons the board chose to establish an ICF fund: “We want to establish a mechanism for potential donors who wish to place significant funds with Kinderhaven with assurance that the capital will be well managed for the long-term benefit of our organization and we eventually want to have a continuous source of funds for the children who need our help.”

Agency funds work like this: A nonprofit puts at least $10,000 (though $50,000 is recommended) into an endowed ICF fund. The fund is invested by ICF’s professional fund managers and overseen by the Investment Committee. The ICF Board recommends an annual distribution, which has historically been 5 percent of the fund’s average market value. A $50,000 fund can expect to generate $2,500 per year, and will continue to grow based on the investment performance. The organization’s board of directors can use the annual distribution any way they’d like.

ICF charges agency funds .5 percent or $250 annually, compared to 1 percent annually for its other endowed funds. ICF President and CEO Bob Hoover said the lower fee is because agency fund holders are nonprofits and he believes having an endowed fund puts an agency on the path to financial stability.

“All nonprofits are looking for a reliable, guaranteed source of income,” Hoover said. “An endowed fund generates income forever and it grows based on donations and investment performance.”

An endowed fund also allows an organization to accept gifts it might not have been able to before, such as real estate, art collections, life insurance and more.

Wakefield said the fund will help Kinderhaven meet its mission. “Kinderhaven’s primary mission is to provide an ongoing ‘haven’ for children in our community that need shelter, protection and acceptance. Working towards having significant capital in reserve will go a long way towards ensuring Kinderhaven’s continued service to our community,” he said.

The Idaho Community Foundation is a statewide public nonprofit organization whose goal is to have a permanent endowment of charitable dollars that will serve Idaho forever. ICF manages charitable funds on behalf of organizations, families, individuals and businesses. Each named fund has a designated purpose and distributes grants or scholarships to support a charity or cause. A gift of any size to an ICF fund helps increase the size and number of grants and scholarships awarded to local nonprofits and students.