Cause area
Leave a legacy for Your Hometown
Give back to the place that shaped you through your local community foundation, food bank, library or hospital, or a fund that serves your town forever.
Why it matters
Local gifts are personal: the library you grew up in, the hospital that cared for your family, the food bank that feeds your neighbors.
More than 900 community foundations serve urban and rural communities in every U.S. state, and most can hold a named fund that supports your town for generations.
Sources:
Where an extra dollar goes furthest
These are the kinds of programs our research looks at first in this cause. With a research-guided gift, specific organizations are chosen when your gift arrives, so it can go to what works best then.
Community foundations
A permanent fund that supports your town for generations.
Food security
Food banks and pantries.
Libraries and the arts
Places that make a town a community.
Local health care
Hospitals, clinics and hospice.
Three ways to give to your hometown
Recommended
Research-guided gift
Your will dedicates the gift to your hometown and asks your executor to choose the most effective organizations working on it when the time comes, guided by published research.
A charity you name
Leave your gift to a specific organization you already know and trust.
Your own named fund
Start a fund in your name or a loved one's that gives to your hometown every year. How it works
Sample wording for your will
Our builder fills this in for you. If you already have a will, share this wording with your attorney.
I give ____ percent (____%) of my residuary estate to one or more charitable organizations described in Sections 170(c) and 2055(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, selected by my Executor, to be used for charitable purposes benefiting the people of my hometown community, namely [your city, town or county]. I ask that my Executor consider the research and recommendations published by MyLastWill.org at the time of my death.
Sample language for discussion with your attorney. Not legal advice.
Questions about giving to your hometown
How do I find my community foundation?
Search for the community foundation serving your city or county. Most can create a named fund for you with a simple bequest.
Can I support more than one local organization?
Yes. Add each one as a specific charity, or give to your community foundation and let it direct the money where the need is greatest.
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