Boston and Providence, R.I., December 13, 2007 — The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund ("Gift Fund") and Campus Compact, today announced they are jointly launching a new program — Students4Givingâ„ — that seeks to inspire young people to get more involved with philanthropy. As a part of the program, five academic institutions and their participating students will each receive oversight of a $15,000 donor advised fund to be used for future grant recommendations within their communities. Thirty-five universities and colleges nationwide submitted proposals and competed for five winning slots and the chance to participate in the new pilot program. The participants are Boston University; California State University, Fresno; Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. Financed by Fidelity, the program provides each selected school with a Gift Fund Giving Account®1 seeded with $15,000 that will be overseen by the students participating in their respective school's 2008 winter/spring nonprofit and philanthropy courses. Designed to advance philanthropic education efforts at colleges and universities across the country, the program also will encourage community-based learning and partnership with local nonprofit organizations. "Students are being given a unique and rare opportunity to learn about charitable giving by overseeing funds that are earmarked exclusively for charitable purposes," said David Giunta, president of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. "They will make recommendations about what causes and qualified public charities to support and apply best practices for recommending how the monies are invested to potentially grow the Giving Account balance for future charitable grants." Giunta said the program will help students build the framework needed to continue social entrepreneurship and philanthropy efforts in the future, as well as gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist within the non-profit world. Students will learn about and be involved in a variety of activities that teach them how to meet community needs by researching local issues, evaluating IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charities and determining appropriate grant amounts. Projects developed for the Students4Giving program will link participants in a range of disciplines, including public service, nonprofit management, communications, business and accounting. With an eye on sustainability, some campuses have incorporated features such as grant writing and outcomes assessment; others are creating new courses, such as a "Philanthropy Boot Camp." "The giving initiatives administered through the Students4Giving program illustrate the importance our colleges and universities place on preparing students to tackle today's most pressing social issues," said Maureen F. Curley, president, Campus Compact. "We are grateful to Fidelity and the Gift Fund for creating this opportunity for students to support their communities while learning about project management, grant research and fundraising strategies that will create a legacy of giving for the future." The Gift Fund and Campus Compact will provide the selected schools with access to charitable planning consultants, as well as guidance and education on charitable giving topics, civic volunteerism and giving through a donor advised fund throughout the semester. "We are thrilled to be selected to participate in the Students4Giving program," said Lynn Blanchard, director, University of North Carolina — Carolina Center for Public Service. "Our students are committed to supporting community organizations through the philanthropic process; strengthening their learning through an actual giving program that they manage and is connected to their coursework provides a real-world experience that will benefit them throughout their lives." As one of the nation's largest public charities, the Gift Fund has granted more than $7 billion to more than 113,000 nonprofits organizations since its inception in 19912. The Gift Fund teamed with Campus Compact, a leader in advancing civic and community work among higher education institutions, to implement this new pilot program. Campus Compact works with college and university presidents, faculty and staff to ensure that students graduate with the skills and knowledge to contribute to the common good. "It is our hope that the Students4Giving program will help build upon the resources and academic infrastructure available to today's students and provide them with the knowledge and inspiration to become the next generation of philanthropic leaders working collectively to help address some of the critical social issues facing our communities today," said Giunta.
About Donor Advised Funds
A donor advised fund program allows individuals, private foundations, and business entities to make irrevocable contributions to the public charity sponsoring the program which are then allocated to a specific account, the individual "donor advised fund," from which donor advisors or account holders may then recommend grants to qualified grant recipients on their own timetable.3 When donors make contributions, they may in turn be eligible to take tax deductions. They also receive and obtain certain privileges, including that of recommending grants from the donor advised fund to IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charities and certain private operating foundations.4 Contributions to a charity with a donor advised fund program are often invested by the Trustees of the charity in investments provided by the program at the recommendation of the donors, which can help allow donors to potentially give more support to the causes they care about. The charity will generally perform due diligence to verify that each nonprofit organization to which a grant is recommended is an IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charity or qualified private operating foundation, and will further verify that that the grant is compliant with the policies of the charity and its donor advised fund program.
About Campus Compact
Campus Compact is a coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents — representing some 6 million students — who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national association dedicated to this mission, Campus Compact is a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life. Through the organization's national office and 35 state offices, Campus Compact provides training, research, resources, and advocacy to help colleges and universities educate a new generation of responsible leaders. For more information, visit /.
About Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
The Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fundâ„ is one of the nation's largest public charities and has the largest donor-advised fund program in the country5. The mission of the Gift Fund is to further the American tradition of philanthropy by providing programs that make charitable giving simple and effective. The Gift Fund was established by Fidelity Investments® in 1991, as an independent public charity, and is governed by a Board of Trustees, the majority of who are independent of Fidelity Investments. Since the Gift Fund's inception, more than 46,000 donors have recommended grants totaling more than $7.3 billion to more than 113,000 IRS-qualified public charities nationwide, as of September 30, 2007. Various Fidelity Investments companies provide non-discretionary investment management and administrative services to the Gift Fund. For more information on the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, visit www.charitablegift.org.
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $3.4 trillion, including managed assets of more than $1.6 trillion as of October 31, 2007. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to more than 24 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, the largest mutual fund supermarket and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com. Charitable Gift Fund and the Charitable Gift Fund logo are service marks, and Giving Account is a registered service mark, of the Trustees of the Fidelity Investments® Charitable Gift Fund. Fidelity and Fidelity Investments are registered service marks of FMR LLC used by the Gift Fund under license. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC. 100 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02110
1 The Giving Account is the Gift Fund's donor advised fund.
2 As of September 30, 2007.
3 Subject to minimum activity requirements.
4 Grants can only be made to IRS-qualified public charities. These are organizations that are formed under the laws of the United States and its territories, which are public charities as described in Section 509(a)(1), (a)(2) or (a)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the "Code"), or are private operating foundations as described in Section 4942(j)(3) of the Code and applicable regulations and IRS authority.
5 Chronicle of Philanthropy Rankings, 2005.
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