Give Through Us
Fountain Social Impact harnesses the power and flexibility of donor-advised funds (DAFs) to provide our clients with professional philanthropic services without the compliance burdens and administrative overhead associated with establishing and operating a private foundation. Big Philanthopy has staff working daily to advance its agenda. You deserve the same advantage.
We specialize in working with donors who are seeking field or sector-level impact within a given geography or demographic profile. In other words, you tell us what you want to achieve. We identify the best organizations with which to partner to achieve it.
Fountain houses many bespoke DAFs, each one tailored to the specific needs of each donor; however, we actively seek opportunities for our donors to work together and learn from one another whenever their philanthropic interests coincide. Thus, Fountain is more than a passive receptacle for philanthropic donations; it is a family of engaged donors interested in taking the impact of their philanthropy as seriously as they take the return on their investments.
A Better Way To Give
A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a flexible vehicle for charitable giving that allows for tax-efficient donations of money and other assets.
- Because the IRS has established no annual minimum distribution requirement for DAFs, you can take the time you need to make smarter decisions about the way you give, how much and to whom.
- You can donate assets other than money with ease. Even better, donations of publicly traded securities, mutual funds, real estate and other illiquid gifts to DAFs are not subject to capital gains when they are liquidated within your DAF.
- Furthermore, the funds within your DAF can grow tax-free while awaiting distribution. To this end, we work closely with our trusted wealth-management partners, including Chelsea Management Company, Think Wealth Asset and Millennium Investment Services.
Our Services
Due Diligence
We rigorously assess the capacity, efficiency and track record of the organizations we support, paying special attention to less tangible aspects such as quality of leadership and organizational culture.
Relationship Management
We stand between you and your giving, not as an obstacle but as a trusted intermediary that contextualizes and critically assesses the organizations we support according to your vision and goals.
Impact Assessment
We give always with an eye peeled on impact and accountability, working with you and the organizations we support to generate good data and reasonable metrics for tracking success.
How We Work
Why Trust Us?
I am Brad Myers, Ph.D., President and Executive Director of Fountain Social Impact. Professional philanthropy is what I do and what I was born to do. For the past 25 years, I have labored in the posh vineyards of professional philanthropy, working for foundations large and small, all the while witnessing the transformative power of smart grantmaking when it is aligned with quality, community-based organizations. I have worked collaboratively with diverse stakeholders to develop and implement strategies in support of donors’ philanthropic visions. I rest assured that the networks of expertise and communities of practice that I have helped to cultivate will continue to generate great amounts of good in this world for generations.
Knowledge
Anyone can cut a check. Not anyone can practice philanthropy. Fewer still can practice philanthropy well. Philanthropy may not be rocket science, but there are skills involved, often very soft skills, difficult to learn. Moreover, there is an art to philanthropy. I have put in the requisite 10,000 hours in the proverbial woodshed to learn these things.
Experience
Not only have I spent my entire professional career in philanthropy, I have worked across the social sector in a variety of fields, with a variety of populations and types of organizations. From disaster relief, recovery and risk reduction to the education of Catholic sisters in Africa, you would be hard pressed to find someone with my breath of experience in this space.
Passion
Addressing your ultimate concern explicitly through charitable giving is my mission and passion. I am no technocrat nor disciple of effective altruism, preferring rather to work with people of faith. Together, we can do better than secular humanism.
There are few people like me who have spent their entire career giving other people’s money away. It is unusual work, to be sure, through which I have developed a particular set of skills. As you might imagine, I have also developed some opinions about how philanthropy ought to be done. Over the years, I have been exposed to all the good, the bad and the ugly of which professional philanthropy is capable, and, as a result, I can steer your giving in the right direction given who you are and what you want to achieve, regardless of the obstacles that may come our way. There is little that I have not seen or overcome in this field.
You rightly turn to estate planners, CPAs and investment advisors to help you grow and manage your money. I am the person to whom you turn when it comes time to treat your giving just as seriously.