Club member Deb Dulaney, who also works for The Dayton Foundation, introduced our speaker, Joseph B. Baldasare, Chief Development Officer for The Dayton Foundation.

She said Joe, a native Daytonian, joined The Dayton Foundation in 2001. He has more than 40 years of not-for-profit organization management experience, most recently as the Executive Director of United Rehabilitation Services. As Chief Development Officer for The Dayton Foundation, he is responsible for overseeing fund development and gift-planning activities.

Deb said Joe is a graduate of Wilbur Wright High School. He earned his M.S. degree in rehabilitation administration from DePaul University and a B.A. in education from OSU. 

He has been awarded the Certified Fund Raising Executive designation by the CFRE International and was named the 2005 Outstanding Fundraising Executive by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. 

Deb said he is an active volunteer with his church, while also serving on the boards for The Disability Foundation, The Moore Foundation, and previously on the Miami Valley Housing Opportunities  (Chairman of the Board), the Ohio Association of Non-Profit Organizations (Chairman of the Board), and the Wright State University Non-Profit Leadership Alliance. Joe is a member of The Partnership of Philanthropic Planning of Greater Dayton and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. 

Joe resides in Beavercreek with his wife Terri. They have four grown children and eight grandchildren.

Joe started his remarks and power point presentation by praising his colleague Deb Dulaney, noting that she is a major cog in the wheel of the organization.

He noted that the community foundation began in 1921 with John H. Patterson getting together with Julia Shaw Patterson Cornell, D. Frank Garland, and Robert Patterson, all civic leaders of their day, with Julia known best for the Dayton Art Institute support.

Joe said John H. Patterson used to make lists of 5 or 6 things he planned to do, and he has a paper that Patterson wrote in 1919 that says: Start The Dayton Foundation.

He said the job of The Dayton Foundation is to empower others through philanthropy and community leadership to better the community. Some of the major philanthropists like Jesse Phillips, John Berry, Sr., Virginia Kettering, are now gone, he said, but "the bully pulpit can call people together." There are 800 community foundations in the U.S., he said, with 56 billion dollars in assets.

Last year $350 billion was given to U.S. charities.

The Dayton Foundation is a tax-exempt public charity, with a 501-C3 tax status. There are 3,600 charitable funds under The Dayton Foundation umbrella, which includes funds for individuals, families, businesses, and non-profits, Joe said. In the last ten years more than 147 grants totaling $414 million have been awarded to benefit charities. Some $14.5 million in scholarships have helped nearly 12,100 students to get an education. 

Joe said The Dayton Foundation is the number one source for scholarships for schools in Southwest Ohio. More than 1,100 school scholarships were granted last year. By contacting The Dayton Foundation Web site one can do one-stop shopping with Scholarship Connect, to find a scholarship that fits your needs.

Total assets climbed to $484 million after depreciation in the fiscal year 2016. Joe said the Foundation now has $505 million in assets and $215 million in planned and deferred gifts from 400-plus donors. He told of a woman in Sidney who, about a dozen years ago, began putting fresh flowers in her church every day. She set up a fund in The Dayton Foundation to make sure after she died that there would still be flowers every day at that church, he said. "There are 1,000 different ways people are doing things," he said.  The Foundation can create funds that allow them to do what they want to do," he said. There are 800 community foundations in the U.S. and The Dayton Foundation ranks 45th in new gifts, 28th in grant awards, and 37th in market value of assets, he said.

There are various programs, such as a Charitable Checking Account, which allows you to write checks to charities, with the ability to time the giving and deductions and appreciated assets, with no fees or fund minimums. Donor directed grants can be anywhere in the U.S. They allow you to avoid capital gains taxes by taking the tax deduction a year in advance.

There is an IRA Charitable Rollover that allows you to avoid income tax on the required minimum deduction with charitable fund options. There are legacy gifts and life estate/ life insurance bequests, and charitable gift annuities. The life insurance can be in your name, but the Dayton Foundation owns it, thus the payment for the life linsurance is a charitable fund donation. 

The club members ended the meeting by reciting the words of Rotary's Four-Way Test.