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. 

Guide to Directors and Officers Liability Insurance

Fundamentals
For boards of directors, trustees, and foundation managers, there are few areas of operation that cause more confusion and uncertainty than indemnification and the purchase of directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance. And it is no wonder. Mixing the often impenetrable statutory language…

Nonprofit Mergers

Legal Compliance Guidance
A look at some of the legal and non-legal aspects of merging one charitable program or organization with another. Ray S. Munney, executive director of the Zenith County Community Foundation, had three meetings scheduled Tuesday morning. The first was with the new manager of a local corporation's…

Definition of a Community Foundation

Creating an Inactive Funds Policy

Legal Compliance Guidance
Imagine the following scenarios: A donor advisor has not made a recommendation from a donor advised fund for two years. An agency has requested that your community foundation not make a distribution from an agency endowment until the agency requests a distribution at some point in the future.…

Developing a Travel Policy

Fundamentals
Under the rules applicable to private foundations, directors or trustees and staff members may be reimbursed for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred in connection with the foundation's charitable activities. Such expenditures fall under the heading of administrative costs and will generally…

U.S. Foundation Employment and Payment of Foreign Nationals and Students

Legal Compliance Guidance
Over the past decade or so, economies have become more global and the tools for communicating news from around the world have become more effective and timely in reporting global events via the internet, video and text messaging, Twitter, and Facebook, to name but a few of these tools. Foundations…

Component Funds: The Absence of Material Restrictions

Legal Compliance Guidance
This document outlines the basics of component funds, field of interest funds, donor-advised funds, and restrictions around these funds.

Intermediate Sanctions Regulations Checklist

Legal Compliance Guidance
The intermediate sanctions rules prohibit tax-exempt organizations from providing more than fair market value economic benefits to their “disqualified persons.” The intermediate sanctions rules apply to all section 501(c)(3) and section 501(c)(4) organizations except for private foundations, which…

Pros and Cons of Sharing Board Members With Grantees

Legal Compliance Guidance
What do you do when a grantee—or potential grantee—asks someone on your board or staff to sit on their board? Does such a request constitute a conflict of interest? Are there times when such a situation can actually benefit one or both of the organizations involved? Let’s look at some of the pros…

Sharing Board Members With Grantees

Many foundation board members wear more than one philanthropic hat. In addition to serving on the board of a grantmaker, they may also serve on the boards of grantseeking charities—or even on their staffs. Several issues may arise when board members find themselves on both sides of a grant request…

Tangible Benefits Resulting from Grants

Legal Compliance Guidance
In the May/June 1998 issue of Foundation News & Commentary, Jane Nober wrote "That's the Ticket"  about using foundation funds to pay for tickets to fundraising events. Six years later, questions about tickets and other tangible benefits paid for by the foundation are still among the most…

Accepting Tickets from Grantees

Legal Compliance Guidance
Accepting and using tickets and other tangible benefits of more than minimal value raises questions for foundation managers. Review the general Tax Code rules to learn what is acceptable.

IRS FAQs about Public Disclosure Requirements

External Resource
Tax-exempt organizations must make annual returns and exemption applications filed with the IRS available for public inspection and copying upon request. In addition, the IRS makes these documents available. These FAQs relate to the public disclosure and availability of documents filed by tax-…

Compensate Your Board? Legal and Ethical Considerations

Legal Compliance Guidance
Can we pay our board members? Should we? The issue of whether to pay foundation board members is always a controversial topic. Expect the media, regulators, general public, and even your grantees to scrutinize the decisions you make. What is legal? Though the rules may vary slightly by type of…

Executive Compensation Best Practices

Legal Compliance Guidance
The Internal Revenue Code provides excise tax penalties that can be imposed by the Internal Revenue Service whenever unreasonable or excessive compensation is paid to high-level employees of charitable organizations. Over and above any legal requirements or public scrutiny, good stewards of…

Reporting and Classification of Assets Under UPMIFA

Legal Compliance Guidance
This memorandum considers whether adoption of the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) requires changes to existing guidance regarding the reporting and classification of assets held by community foundations. Current guidance is incorporated in a 1997 memorandum, Report on…
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