We're here to help!

Contact Ellen Tolleson Hegge at 507-424-2407 or ellen@rochesterarea.org with any of your questions about opening or giving to a fund.

Field of Interest Fund

A field of interest fund is a popular and attractive option for donors who want to support local causes but wish to entrust Rochester Area Foundation to award grants to nonprofits achieving positive results and impact in the greater Rochester area.

Our community’s strongest assets are the vibrant nonprofits that strengthen and enhance the lives of the people they serve. When nonprofits thrive, everyone thrives. Annual distributions from your fund will join Rochester Area Foundation’s competitive grantmaking to support the nonprofit community each year. Designed to strengthen the Rochester area’s greatest assets, these grants support community development, the environment, learning, arts and culture, and nonprofit capacity building in our communities.

Key Benefits of a Field of Interest Fund:

  • Your field of interest fund can be as narrow or broad as you wish.
  • Address current and future needs and opportunities within the Rochester area in an area of your passion.
  • Can be named to recognize the donor(s), a family member, friend or organization. Or, you can select a name for the fund that ensures your anonymity.
  • RAF can accept contributions of many types of assets, including stock and real estate.

Project Get Outdoors received $5,000 to create activity backpacks with a variety of materials to help adult leaders engage students with the outdoors.

Jeremiah Program received $27,000 while in their exploration and pre-development phases. Now the Jeremiah Program is poised to make the Rochester campus, serving 40 single mothers and their children, a reality.
The Kindness Project, helmed by high school senior Christie Greason, received $6,500 to build and stock a library at the Juvenile Detention Center.