NEIGHBORHOOD FUND

Invest serves as the administrator the Neighborhood Fund, a perpetual fund managed by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.  This fund was created by the Community Councils for the Community Councils. Income generated from the fund is divided among member Community Councils on an annual basis (Annual Interest Grant).

AIG FORM

PURPOSE OF THE FUND

The income of said Fund shall be used exclusively for the following purposes :

• to stimulate neighborhood action and coordination; to increase meaningful citizen participation; to improve the quality of neighborhood life; to promote a sense of community;
• to develop creativity, decision-making and leadership; to encourage neighborhood improvement projects;
• to address neighborhood needs;
• to identify and attract needed resources and services from outside a neighborhood;
• to create an on-going Neighborhood Action Process which includes determining and prioritizing neighborhood needs, developing and implementing a plan to meet those needs and measuring the effectiveness of the plan;
• to motivate people’s talents which are responsive to community needs that the community may be willing to find ways to continue them.

PROHIBITIONS

The Neighborhood Fund is not intended to provide funds for:

1. direct assistance to persons in need;
2. employment not designed specifically to improve a community or the community action process;
3. payments, other than expense reimbursements, to professional school (i.e., certified positions) or government employees working in their regular job capacity;
4. efforts that do not directly relate to the purpose and intent of the Neighborhood Fund;
5. organizations or purposes that have been denied charitable status by IRS (i.e., food coops);
6. payment (compensation or expense reimbursement) to a disqualified person (a substantial contributor to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, its manager, a member of the family of either and local, state or Federal governmental officials), unless the payment is for personal services which are reasonable and necessary to carry out the exempt purpose of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and are not excessive, except that no payments for compensation are allowed to government officials;
7. payment to carry on propaganda, or otherwise to attempt to influence legislation through an attempt to affect the opinion of the general public or any segment thereof, and any attempt to influence legislation through communication with any member or employee of a legislative body, or with any governmental official or employee who may participate in the formulation of legislation (technical advice or assistance provided to a governmental body or to a committee or other subdivision thereof in response to a written request by such body or subdivision as the case may be, or to raise funds for the above purpose;
8. payment of any amount to carry on propaganda; or otherwise to attempt to influence administrative or policy decisions of any governmental unit including, but not limited to school boards, zoning boards and planning commissions, or to raise funds for these purposes;
9. payment of any any amount to threaten litigation, to initiate and carry on litigation, to settle any legal claim, or to retain any attorney for the purposes stated above, or to raise funds for any of the purposes stated above;
10. payment of any amount to influence the outcome of any specific public election, or to carry on, directly or indirectly, procuring the registration of voters or participating in any campaign on behalf of, or against a candidate for public office in an election or a proposal submitted to the electorate in a referendum or to raise funds for this purpose;
11. payment of any amount to influence the policies and decisions of any donor to Invest In Neighborhoods, Inc., or to raise funds for this purpose;
12. payment of a grant to an individual for travel, study or other similar: purpose by such individual, unless the grant constitutes a scholarship or fellowship grant within the meaning of Federal income tax laws, or a grant to an individual the purposes of which are to achieve a specific objective. produce a report or other similar product or improve or enhance a literary, artistic, musical, scientific, teaching or other similar capacity, skill or talent of the grantee or a grant which constitutes a prize or award made primarily in recognition of religious, charitable, scientific, artistic, literary or civic achievement, but only if the recipient was selected without any action on his part to enter the contest or proceedings; and, the recipient is not required to render substantial future services as a condition to receive the prize or award.
13. payment of a grant to an organization other than (i) a church or a convention or association of churches, (ii) an educational organization which normally maintains regular faculty and curriculum and normally has a regularly enrolled body of pupils or students in attendance where its educational activities are regularly carried on, (iii) a hospital or a medical research organization directly engaged in continuous active conduct of medical research in conjunction with a hospital, (iv) an organization organized and operated exclusively to receive, hold, invest and administer property or to make expenditures to or for a college or university, (v) a State, a Territory, a possession of the United States, or any political subdivision of the foregoing, or the United States, or the District of Columbia , but only if the contribution or gift is made exclusively for public purposes, (vi) a corporation, trust, or community chest, fund or foundation which normally receives a substantial part of s support from a governmental unit or from direct or indirect contributions from the general public, (vii) an organization which normally receives more than one-third of its support in each taxable year from any combination of gifts, grants, contributions or membership fees and gross receipts from admissions, sales of merchandise, performance of services, or furnishing of facilities in an activity which is not an unrelated trade or business, from persons other than disqualified persons and normally receives not more than one-third of its support from gross investment income, (viii) an organization which is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes of one or more specified organizations in (i) through (vii), is operated supervised or controlled by one or more of these organizations. and is not controlled directly or indirectly by one or more disqualified persons (with respect to the Neighborhood Fund;
14. payment for any purpose other than religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals.

ELIGIBILITY

Neighborhood:

a district located within the corporate limits of the City of Cincinnati, Ohio, the geographical boundaries of which districts are defined by the group seeking to term itself a neighborhood.

Neighborhood council:

(i) an organization incorporated under the not-for-profit laws of the State of Ohio;

(ii) membership in which is open to any person and any resident interested in the neighborhood which a council purports to represent, provided however:

(1) the term “person” includes business entities having their principal offices in the neighborhood, including but not limited to unincorporated businesses, i.e., partnerships and sole proprietorships

(2) which business entities may be members of the neighborhood council representing such neighborhood under the terms provided in that neighborhood council’s current Code of Regulations or Bylaws. and

(3) council bylaws may restrict voting privileges of natural persons to those over age 17;

(iii) the purposes of which organization are to maintain or improve the quality of life in that neighborhood;

(iv) organization is recognized by the Board of Trustees of IIN; and

(v) organization has contributed at least $2,000 to the Fund and fulfilled such further requirements as established by the Board and approved by the Members of IIN