Jet Trails are the Inspiration Behind the Community Foundation

According to Community Foundation Founder, Jim Webster, the Community Foundation was being organized in the winter of 1997 when a he got two unrelated calls from attorneys saying they were setting up charitable trusts for their clients and all the proceeds needed to go to a community foundation. The Community Foundation was not yet incorporated for the 1997 tax year. As a result, one charitable fund worth $12 million went to a community foundation in Nebraska and the other trust, worth $13 million went to a community foundation that serves a city in southern California. Because there was no community foundation in Reno yet, no “charitable pocket,” for community bequests and charitable gifts, the money left Reno for community foundations in other towns lived in by the donors.  (Jet Trails.) That was a total of $25 million that nonprofit and educational organizations in our region did not receive.  The Community Foundation of Western Nevada was incorporated as a public 501 (c)3 in February 1998 and will benefit our region forever.