The Carman Area Foundation (CAF) recently announced a new endowment fund created in honour of Dane Nicolajsen who passed away last year. This is the second major donor-advised fund within the CAF.

The fund will go towards supporting youth and youth-related projects within the Town of Carman and the surrounding areas.

"We're quite excited, the foundation and the family . . . Dane was very active in the community and with any funds that a family or organization sets up, they can identify how they wish the annual grants be directed," says CAF Executive Director Fred Colvin.

He says these types of funds start out small, but they're around forever which gives them the opportunity to see it grow and provide continued support to community initiatives.

"We have around 20 designated funds in total, plus our undesignated funds, same as all community foundations. We grant in total per year around $80,000 [and] our assets are approaching $2.4-million now," adds Colvin.

As the funds grow, they can be invested in other areas of the foundation. Donor-advised funds allow communication to stay open between the board and the creator of these funds.

"There's a mechanism in the province – in the country – where a family can set up their own foundation."

Colvin says the bonus of working with a community foundation is, the funds go directly where the creators wish without having to do all of the paperwork and administration of keeping a foundation running.