A ‘90s Twist on the Community Chest Idea

Orange County cities are slowly bringing back the community chest, a practice once used by residents to help pay for special projects.

This time, the chests are called community foundations, and they provide more than a way to help cities--they offer tax breaks.

Costa Mesa city officials agreed in November to form a municipal foundation so residents and businesses can give to city projects, such as cleanup days and park improvements, and reap the benefits of tax write-offs.

The city is in the process of applying to the state to form the nonprofit, tax-exempt foundation, which will be run by a board of directors.

La Habra officials are doing the same.

Community foundations in Anaheim and Tustin already are in place.

Advocates say foundations are a way for people to give to causes they care about--such as building computer centers, cleaning up dilapidated neighborhoods and sponsoring park concerts.

“Your taxes go to everything else out there,” said Robert Kiley, co-director of the Tustin Community Foundation. “This is something very specialized and focused.”

Tustin raised about $100,000 last year, about 95% of which will directly benefit projects, Kiley said. Some of the money went toward a new computer lab at the Tustin Youth and Family Center and to public concerts.

“If we’re not going to help the situation in our communities by relying on the people living there, then who cares?” Kiley said.

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Although there is support for such foundations, questions of how to run them and how to raise money have caused concern among some city officials.

Tustin City Councilman Mike Doyle said he supports the foundation but twice voted against Kiley’s $30,000 annual fee, which was taken from the city budget.

“If he’s such a great fund-raiser, then he should be able to raise the money to become more self-sufficient and pay his way,” Doyle said.

Kiley said that a professional fund-raiser is the best way to guide a foundation. He said Tustin’s foundation’s revenue is up about 25% since he took over two years ago.

Without professional fund-raisers, the Brea Community Foundation was shut down.

The City Council in 1996 decided to stop funding the foundation and close it down because it was not able to support itself through donations, Brea Mayor Lynn Daucher said.

“It never became independent, which was the goal,” Daucher said.

Competition from other nonprofits might have edged it out.

“There’s a lot of good causes in Brea,” she said. “There’s a lot of people out for the same dollars.”

Cities are following an idea already proved popular in school districts, where foundations tend to work well and have funded performing arts programs and athletics, have provided computers and classroom materials and in some cases have paid for teacher salaries.

Anaheim has had a community foundation since 1984 that officials say is successful. Five businessmen founded the Anaheim Community Foundation in an effort to improve the quality of life and save park programs.

About 99% of the foundation’s donations go to community projects, said Christopher K. Jarvi, Anaheim’s parks and recreation director. The foundation gives about $250,000 a year.

The foundation has helped fund youth scholarships, cultural arts programs, emergency assistance for low-income residents, the city’s Senior Olympics and programs for mentally disabled people.

Jarvi said the foundation has about $950,000 in the bank.

“We keep the interest, and that’s basically our charge for handling the money for them,” Jarvi said. “Over time, that interest starts adding up.”