Community Foundations

Community foundations are grantmaking public charities that are dedicated to improving the lives of people in a defined local geographic area. They bring together the financial resources of individuals, families, and businesses to support effective nonprofits in their communities. Community foundations vary widely in asset size, ranging from less than $100,000 to more than $1.7 billion.

Community foundations play a key role in identifying and solving community problems. In 2017, they gave an estimated $5.48 billion to a variety of nonprofit activities in fields that included the arts and education, health and human services, the environment, and disaster relief. The Community Foundations National Standards Board confirms operational excellence in six key areas—mission, structure, and governance; resource development; stewardship and accountability; grantmaking and community leadership; donor relations; and communications. Foundations that comply with these standards can display the official National Standards Seal. Currently, over 500 community foundations have earned the seal.

More than 900 community foundations operate in urban and rural areas in every state in the United States; currently, approximately 350 are members of the Council on Foundations. The community foundation model also has taken hold around the world. Community foundations have participated in the growth of international giving by U.S. foundations in recent years, with international giving by community foundations more than tripling, from $103 million in 2011 to $315 million in 2015, and community foundations' share of overall international giving by U.S. foundations more than doubling, from 1.4 percent in 2011 to 3.4 percent in 2015.

You can use our Community Foundation Locator to view a list of community foundations in the United States.

Below is everything on our site for community foundations. We highly recommend that you use the navigation or our search feature to find what you're looking for on our site. Please also visit cof.org/community-foundations for curated community foundation content. 

17 Days, 17 Goals: Goal 3 - Health

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages - This post is part of our blog series: 17 Days, 17 Goals. The blog series features foundations working on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals leading up to the first anniversary of the SDGs.…

17 Days, 17 Goals: Goal 2 - Hunger

Goal 2: Zero Hunger - End hunger, achieve food security, and promote sustainable agriculture - This post is part of our blog series: 17 Days, 17 Goals. The blog series features foundations working on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals leading up to the first anniversary of the SDGs. The…

17 Days, 17 Goals: Goal 1 - Poverty

Goal 1: No Poverty - End poverty in all its forms everywhere - This post is part of our blog series: 17 Days, 17 Goals. The blog series features foundations working on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals leading up to the first anniversary of the SDGs. The Council on Foundations…

Washington Snapshot - September 2, 2016

News from the Hill Congressional Leaders Champion Social Investment Representatives Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) and John Delaney (D-MD) are working to educate their colleagues on the value of social investing and the role of philanthropy in leveraging private capital to create social good. The pair have…

17 Days, 17 Goals

17 Days, 17 Goals - philanthropy's work on the Sustainable Development Goals Sustainability. Quality education. Poverty reduction. Gender equality. These are issues American foundations are working on every day. But this list is not uniquely American: it is global and universal. Each of these…

Survey Results: The Operation of Women’s Funds at Community Foundations

Publication
After a request by a CF Insights member seeking information about the operation of Women's Funds at community foundation, a survey was created and administered to a subset of potential respondents. This short, eight-question survey collected some high-level information about fees pricing, revenue…

New Research: Foundations’ Spending in Support of Mission Holds Steady, Despite Second Year of Declining Investment Returns

Data gathered in the 2015 Council on Foundations–Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations® (CCSF) show that participating private foundations reported an average return of 0.0 percent for the 2015 fiscal year (January 1 – December 31, 2015), down from the 6…

Louisiana Floods: How Can Funders Help?

Hit by one of the largest U.S. disasters since Hurricane Sandy, residents and communities in the State of Louisiana are experiencing historic flooding and need your help. Several deaths have been attributed to the flooding, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, and thousands are…

Community Foundations Update - August 2016

Back again with August updates from the Council and opportunities you might find useful. Connect with Your Peers in Upcoming Workshop and Learning Forum I am very excited to announce our upcoming workshop on community leadership, donor engagement, advocacy, and impact investing in Louisville, KY,…

#EFSummit's Almost Here

Stephanie Bell-Rose is the Senior Managing Director and Head of the TIAA Institute. The Council on Foundations’ 2016 Endowments and Finance Summit is just around the corner – Sept. 28-30 – and as co-chair of the convening's working group, I strongly encourage you to register for it! I personally…

Global Philanthropy Update - August 2016

To keep you in the know about happenings that affect foundations that fund across borders and new opportunities for learning, sharing, and collaboration, I am excited to introduce you to the Council’s new Global Philanthropy Update. Every month, we will highlight resources available through the…

Charitable Trusts Available to More Under New IRS Guidance

For foundations that offer charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATs), a new revenue procedure (Rev. Proc. 2016-42) offers a sample provision that may be included in the governing instrument of the trust (CRAT) and provides that the IRS will treat the sample provision as a qualified contingency…

Linking the SDGs to Philanthropy

Fundamentals
Why do the Sustainable Development Goals matter to philanthropy? These broad global goals address the same problems that our field is tackling: to reduce poverty, improve livelihoods and quality of life, and create a more equitable global society. Looking at the range of issues in the SDGs, all…

Strengthening Community: Finding Synergies in Leadership and Donor Engagement

Join the Council on Foundations with its partner, The Philanthropic Initiative, for a member-only workshop for community foundations where we will explore ways you can maximize your foundation’s impact by leveraging community resources in and outside of your foundation. Ellen Remmer and Amy Zell…

Diving into the Data: Issues Specific to the Chief Executive Officer

Continuing our blog post series about the 2015 Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Report (GSB), this week let’s take a look at the third chapter, “Issues Specific to the Chief Executive Officer.” Get the Report Members, remember that you can download the GSB for free. You can also purchase the report…

Legal Lunch: Grantmaking for Economic Development

Promoting economic development is not, by itself, a charitable purpose. Grantmakers seeking to help people and communities achieve economic self-sufficiency must therefore find a connection between a proposed activity and one or more recognized charitable purposes. In this Legal Lunch Series,…
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