The Executive Officers of OAGC Inc. have spent many hours over the past winter gaining a better under-standing of the two sister organizations: The Ohio Association of Garden Clubs, Inc. and the OAGC Foundation. The OAGC Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization and that designation bestows certain responsibilities and benefits. The Ohio Association of Garden Clubs is a
501(c)4 organization and the operations are slightly different for it.

Both entities are exempt from sales tax and from paying income tax on their earnings, however, only donations made to the OAGC Foundation are tax exempt for individuals (on their personal income taxes.)

The elected officers of the OAGC serve as the Trustees of the OAGC Foundation (and yes, it is officially registered as OAGC Foundation.) To allow both organizations to flourish, the Executive board is making some changes. ALL donated funds will now go to the OAGC Foundation. If a donor prefers to designate funds to a specific program, the donor can note this on the check’s ‘memo’ line. If there is no designation, the donation will go to the OAGC Foundation’s general fund.

The current Designated Funds programs are: Scholarships, Wahkeena, Mohican School in the Out-of-Doors, Beautification & Conservation (including Junior Beautification), and General Funds.

Wahkeena designations may be made for special things such as Birdseed, Improvements, etc. but Wahkeena prefers donations without further designation, so that the staff may choose where to best use the funds.

With these changes, ANY donation made by an individual is a ‘tax-exemption’ donation on their personal income taxes, whether it is $10, $15, or $1000.00. We would like to encourage more donations to the Foundation and then be able to specify the Foundation as the sole source of project funding.