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. 

The Land of Enchantment and Public Policy

This fall’s CCFE public policy seminar for community foundations will be hosted in New Mexico. The seminar is intended to provide community foundation leaders with the necessary skills and tools to advocate and engage in public policy on behalf of the philanthropic sector. As a faculty member…

Community Philanthropy: Using Both Sides of the Brain

In recent years, I’ve witnessed two interesting trends in philanthropy that are particularly resonant with community foundations. First, there has been a backlash against “strategic philanthropy” and accusations that foundations have become too focused on measurement and planning, using top-down…

Learn More About Leadership at the Edge

Twelve years ago, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation tried what it thought was an unconventional move. Anxious to jump-start the downtown area, the foundation convened community and political leaders to devise a strategy for reclaiming the area where our city was born. More than $2 billion has been…

Older Adults Can Lead Change in Your Community

More than 30 U.S. community foundations have taken a fresh look at aging in recent years. And they are bringing a new view to their communities—one that considers older adults to be a vast, untapped resource for social change. As part of the Community Experience Partnership, an initiative of The…

Building Communities Is as Easy as P.I.E.!

Passion, integrity, and engagement: These are the key ingredients to successful outcomes or growth in a community (well, everywhere, really). It takes passion to get involved and make changes. It takes integrity be steadfast and do what you say you are going to do, especially when facing the…

Recoloring the Community Foundation Landscape

In the U.S., more than half of the children younger than a year old are of color and almost one in every 10 counties is majority-minority. By 2023, the majority of U.S. children will be of color. And by 2042, people of color will comprise the majority of the entire U.S. population. These…

The Old and the New

I’m feeling “old.” Not as opposed to “young,” but as opposed to “new.” I think it’s all this talk in our sector lately about innovation. Whatever happened to “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” It’s just oh so sexy and attention-grabbing to label something as “new” even when it’s not. OK, so I’m…

Need to Know More About National Standards? Come to the Fall Conference!

The Fall Conference for Community Foundations* is fast approaching. I want to make sure that you are aware of several opportunities at the conference to learn about the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations™. Developed in the spirit of accountability, transparency, and continuous self-…

Separating the Myths from the Realities of Donor-Advised Funds at Community Foundations

We know donor-advised funds (DAFs) are the engine of growth for many community foundations, but what do we know about the role they play in our communities? This is an often-discussed and debated topic among community foundation staff and boards. Thirty-one community foundations representing…

Building Thriving Communities: Why Leadership Strategy Matters

Why do community foundation CEOs pursue “community leadership” as a key organizing strategy in their foundations? Because there was a leadership void in our community and we realized we were uniquely positioned to step up. Because we recognized we had important assets that could help address the…

Do We All Need Tattoos? Or Poems? On Why Strategy Matters for Community Foundations

In our role at FSG, we are professional advocates for strategy as an essential aspect of leadership to advance community solutions. Why does strategy matter?  The “you can’t be all things to all people” message is one of the simplest refrains—in the words of Michael Porter, this concept is “…

Staffing Small: Staying Strategic Makes It Work

At Placer Community Foundation, our small staff of just 3.1 full-time employees means we need a staffing model that works incredibly well. We made a couple of decisions early on that really helped shape how we staff. First, we decided to focus on bequests. We knew that the professional adviser…

Making Early Childhood Education the Right of Every Child

How should a mid-sized foundation position its initiatives in this age of austerity and how can one county and community foundation influence state-level decisions? These are questions that the Erie Community Foundation asked when it planned an early childhood education initiative more than a year…

Advocacy Success: San José Passes Strong Controls On Payday Lending

On May 15, the San José City Council approved a strong municipal ordinance that will curb the impact of predatory payday lending on residents of America’s 10th largest city. The vote, on a motion by Councilman Ash Kalra, is the latest and largest victory in Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s…

What Business Do Community Foundations Have In Business?

What business does a community foundation have hawking for-profit deals to its donors and other community members?  How does it improve the quality of life in their community?  How does it promote the spirit and practice of philanthropy and service?   Well it turns out, some…

Staffing Models and Board Engagement: Two Vital Assets for Growing Community Foundations

For today’s post, we’ve asked two leaders to weigh in on topics of interest to young, growing community foundations. Their organizations—Kern Community Foundation and The Community Foundation of Mendocino County—participated in Community Foundations Initiative II, a multiyear initiative by The…
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