Buffalo Grove ready to establish community foundation

The concept of a Buffalo Grove community foundation to fund philanthropic and quality of life initiatives within the village has been gestating for a couple years.

Now it appears the idea is close to hatching.

Village Manager Dane Bragg said the village has completed the necessary paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service to establish the charitable fund.

The next step, he said, will be to form a board to oversee the foundation, something the village board likely will take on in the first quarter of 2020.

Residents and other donors will have an opportunity to make tax-deductible contributions to the foundation and direct how they want the money spent.

"If residents have an interest in community arts or performance or open space, they can actually designate funds for a specific purpose to the foundation," Bragg said.

Progress toward establishing the foundation has been slow. The idea first surfaced in 2017, when the village board heard a proposal from the Lake County Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Chicago Community Trust, which pools local donations into endowments and offers grants.

The foundation, in presenting its case for the village to join its efforts, said officials would be relieved of the burden of administering the effort.

However, Bragg said, the village board decided it wanted to create its own foundation to maintain autonomy over the money raised in Buffalo Grove.

Among the suggestions floated for use of the funds by the village was a community band or even a new funding mechanism for Buffalo Grove Days.

Last year, trustees were presented with a draft agreement with the foundation to establish a Buffalo Grove Donor Advised Fund, which the village would provide with a minimum of $10,000 in seed money for its launch.