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. 

FEMA National Disaster Recovery Program Database

External Resource
With the development of the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF), FEMA worked to create systems that can supplement, and not replace, current and ongoing community planning and recovery efforts. To support this effort, FEMA developed a web-based tool, the National Disaster Recovery Program…

IRS: Disaster Relief Resources for Charities and Contributors

External Resource
In the aftermath of a disaster or in other emergency hardship situations, individuals, employers, and corporations are often interested in providing assistance to victims through a charitable organization. The IRS provides a number of resources to help those involved in providing disaster relief…

Sample Matching Gift Policy

Sample Document
This sample matching gift policy can be easily customized for your foundation's use.  

Leadership Insights: What Foundation Executives and Trustees are Saying About Diversity and Inclusion

Recording
A video series featuring leaders sharing their insights about their organizational journey to become more diverse and inclusive and lessons learned along the way. All videos are close captioned. Dr. Robert K. Ross The California Endowment Watch video Dr. Risa…

The Sustainability Formula: How Nonprofit Organizations Can Thrive in the Emerging Economy

External Resource
From TCC Group, which developed the Core Capacity Assessment tool, this resource investigates how organizations can put these core capacities to work in achieving organizational sustainability in difficult economic times.

Building Community Capacity for Participation in Evaluation

External Resource
From Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), what does it mean to truly and authentically engage a community in evaluation? Grantmakers working on place-based grantmaking already have the incentive and drive to support in-depth evaluation, to understand the impact of the initiative, and to…

Working Better Together: Building Nonprofit Collaborative Capacity

External Resource
Collective action is an effective way for nonprofits to increase their impact, but they often lack the key capacities that enable these types of partnerships to thrive. This publication from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) offers insights on the core capacities nonprofits need to…

Sample Decline Letter

Sample Document
This sample declination letter can help you inform grant applicants that their grant proposal was not accepted.

Sample Grant Completion Report

Sample Document
This sample grant completion report may be customized and provided to your grantee partners.  

Seeking Shared Success: Business Model Innovation through Mergers, Affiliations, and Alliances

Publication
The challenges of the recent financial downturn have inspired many community foundations to find new paths to business model innovation. Alliances, affiliations, and mergers offer one path to “shared success.” Seeking shared success with other community foundations is one intriguing way to innovate…

Proposal Review Flowchart

Sample Document
This sample proposal review flowchart may be useful for establishing your foundation's processes for grant review.

Sample Grant Proposal Application Checklist

Sample Document
This sample grant proposal application checklist can be customized to your foundation's processes, allowing you to check off each step of the grant application process.  

Sample Proposal Acknowledgment Letter

Sample Document
This sample grant proposal acknowledgment letter will allow you to let prospective grantees know that their application has been received.  

Sample Post-Grant Self-Evaluation

Sample Document
This sample post-grant evaluation can be customized to your foundation and provided to your grantees to submit at the conclusion of their grant.

Sample Membership Committee Policy

Sample Document
This is a sample Membership Committee policy.

Sample Grant Agreement – No Expenditure Responsibility

Sample Document
This document is an editable grant agreement for grants not requiring expenditure responsibility. This sample document is being provided for informational purposes only and is not to be shared without the permission of the Council on Foundations. Use of the sample document does not create an…
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