Exactly what is a trust fund and a mutual fund and what all do I have to do to obtain them?

I want to invest in something that will grow my money. I just had a daughter and I would like her to have a nice amount of money when she turns 21. I don't want her to be able to access it until then and she may have to meet some conditions before receiving it or it will go to charity. What is available for me to do this?

A mutual fund is a holding of lots of different stocks. Basically you pay a fund family 1% or so of your total investment to buy stocks for you. By buying lots of different stocks, they limit the amount of risk they take.
There are thousands of mutual fund families out there. I believe American Century and Vanguard are now the two biggest and most well recognized. Go to their sites and read some information. Mutual fund information is usually called a "prospectus."
You can get started in some funds for as little as $50.

A trust is a pot of money that is usually a gift from one person to another. This money is held by an entity (for example, a brokerage, fund family, or bank) until some date in the future that the original donor specified. For example, some wealthy parents leave trusts to their children or grandchildren but specify the child can't touch it until they turn 18.

Check with American Century funds. They have a Giftrust fund that will probably work for you.

www.americancentury.com

read tips on mutual funds and more on this site

A trust fund is a monetary gift to people, generally with conditions and the big money generally gets representatives personnely involved. This is mostly important if your child can't handle money. The big money guys might give their kids $10,000 a month for the rest of their lives. That way their children can't blow their fortune on crack or that new jet. This is probably what you want. Chances are the trust will invest that money in conservative accounts to keep it going as long as possible. You will be told how your money will be managed in a prospectus (read it!) and they will give different senerios on how you want it to work (for instance if you were working with just $50,000 you will either have to cut back to giving her just $100 a month to make it last longer or have it last for maybe 5-10 years and give her more money per month).