While administrative fees assessed on donor funds will nearly always provide most of the revenue needed to support operations, direct fundraising from individual donors, internal distributions from the community foundation’s operating funds, and fee for service revenue provide additional support. The community foundation looking to deepen its investment in efforts of community leadership may seek to diversify its revenue sources to help create the flexibility needed to make that investment, while emerging community foundations may depend more on a combination of donor fees and direct fundraising to support a growing operation looking to reach a level of sustainability before expanding into new areas of work.
Averages were used to total 100%. (n=184)
| $0-$25M | $25-$50M | $50-$100M | $100-$250M | $250-$500M | $500M+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % Administrative fees | 72% | 80% | 70% | 79% | 81% | 69% |
| % Fees for service | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 2% | 3% |
| % Transaction fees | 0% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 1% |
| % Fundraising: operations | 10% | 12% | 9% | 5% | 4% | 4% |
| % Fundraising: programmatic | 7% | 2% | 6% | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| % Distribution from endowment/reserve | 10% | 4% | 11% | 6% | 7% | 8% |
| % Other revenue | 1% | 1% | 4% | 3% | 4% | 10% |