Our mission is simple:
Encourage, inspire and provide meaningful ways to improve and sustain the Bainbridge Island community.

The Bainbridge Community Foundation helps people with philanthropic interests support the growing needs of nonprofit organizations that serve Bainbridge residents. We offer donors a variety of options for giving:

• Establish a fund that best fits your philanthropic goals.
  

• Give to the Bainbridge Fund, the pool for unrestricted funds and our community grant making.
  

• Include the Bainbridge Community Foundation in your estate plans.

Click here to find out types of funds offered.
Click here to go to the Gifting Opportunities page and review nonprofit organizations' immediate funding requests.

What is a Healthy Community?
The Healthy Community framework is a vision of what strong community life could be and how philanthropy can play a role in creating it. Developed by The Seattle Foundation as a way to help their donors and supporting organizations focus on strategic giving, our donors see how they can help build a high quality of life for all Bainbridge Island residents by focusing on seven core areas. The health of each area affects the health of the community as a whole.

Meets the basic needs of its residents
Everyone has plenty of nutritious food, safe and comfortable shelter, and suitable clothing. For Bainbridge, affordable housing is a key basic-needs issue.

Promotes health & wellness
The community supports the health and wellness goals of its citizens and ensures that people have access to affordable, quality healthcare and preventive care when needed.

Creates quality education and learning opportunities for all ages
Parents, educators and caregivers get the support they need to love, nurture, teach and guide children to their greatest potential, starting from birth and continuing to adulthood.

Ensures a vibrant and diversified economy
The Bainbridge economy creates quality employment opportunities for everyone, by training and supporting workers, attracting and developing businesses, and providing access to high-quality affordable child care, transportation and other services that support work.

Provides broad access to arts, culture and recreational opportunities
Arts and culture enrich the lives of all residents through community-based arts and cultural events and through well-funded community recreational programs.

Fosters strong and connected neighborhoods & communities
Neighbors support each other, enjoy a high quality of life, come together over common concerns, and are connected to their community.

Protects and stewards its natural environment.
Everybody enjoys, learns about and works to protect a healthy environment that has clean air, healthy and fresh marine waters that support our ecosystem, greenspaces, parks and recreational land. The community has a balanced development and resource plan for future preservation.

Giving Options:
Area-of-Interest Funds allow donors to establish funds that support a specific interest. Donors may direct funding towards environmental causes, youth programs, the arts or other areas of interest. They can also give to an existing Bainbridge Community Foundation Area-of-Interest fund.

Designated Funds enable interested donors to support a specific need, provide endowment support to one or more specific local nonprofit organizations, or create a new program to support a specific local cause.

Donor-Advised Funds allow donors who want to get and stay involved in local philanthropy to do so in an easy, efficient, and affordable way. We keep our donor advisors informed of local giving opportunities while allowing them to recommend grants to specific organizations.

Memorial Funds are available to donors who wish to set up a fund to remember a family member, or to honor a particular event or issue. The Foundation will help manage contributions to a memorial fund as well as direct proceeds to reflect the original intent of the gift.

Scholarship Funds are custom designed to match specific goals, whether donors want to support graduates of a particular high school, students attending a certain college, or students pursuing a particular course of study.
Bequests can be for a certain dollar amount, or a gift of stock, bonds or real estate, or as a residual bequest leaving all or a portion of an estate after debts, taxes, expenses and other bequests have been paid.

Life Income Gifts allow donors to commit cash and other assets to a future philanthropic purpose, while assuring continued current income from those assets by creating a charitable remainder trust.

The Seattle Foundation provides BCF with professional investment management, administrative and accounting support, and technical expertise.