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. 

What You Need to Know from the Giving USA 2016 Report

Giving USA 2016 was released this week and found that overall U.S. charitable giving from all sources—including individuals, bequests, foundations and corporations—reached an estimated $373.25 billion in 2015. This was an all-time high for the second consecutive year. This increase held for both…

2016 Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Survey

The 2016 Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Survey is now open. This survey and the resultant reports are valuable benchmarking tools designed specifically to collect compensation and benefits data for positions at community, private (family and independent), and public foundations, and other staffed…

Council Message on Orlando

Editors Note. Since the publishing of this blog post, the Central Florida Foundation is no longer managing the distribution of donations to the OneOrlando Fund. The Foundation will now be administering the Better Together Fund. Read the full statement from the Foundation at www.cffound.org.…

Learning Together: Finding Shared Goals in Global Conversation

Last week, I spent a day at the Colombian Embassy with 35 foundations from Colombia. The group was comprised of corporate and family foundations, members of the Association for Family and Corporate Foundation in Colombia (AFE), who co-hosted the event with the Council on Foundations. The goal of…

Webinar Recording: February 2016 Legal Lunch Series with Legal Affairs

  Download the Presentation Slides We know it can be difficult navigating the X’s and O’s of exempt organization compliance. Our play callers, Suzanne Friday and Bryan Del Rosario, are here to help. In this Legal Lunch Series, Suzanne and Bryan draw up plays and pass along recommendations…

Washington Snapshot - June 10, 2016

News from the Hill Senate Philanthropy Caucus Co-Chairs Encourage Colleagues to Join This week, the Senate Philanthropy Caucus Co-Chairs, Richard Burr (R-NC) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a Dear Colleague Letter encouraging their fellow Senators to join the caucus. They called for colleagues to “…

Welcome Our 2016 Summer Interns

Toure’ Burgess, Lauren Hamilton, Lauren Wells, Mara Goldman, Sarah Stellwag, and McQuillin Murphy   The Council of Foundations’ summer interns are here! From now through August, our interns — all currently enrolled college students from across the country — will be working in the Council’s…

Sharpen Your Grantmaking Application Process

  Download the Presentation Slides Community foundations instinctively build strong relationships with grantees, at times despite a burdensome grant application process. How can your foundation ensure that funding requests are meaningful and contain clear outcomes? Are incoming grant…

Diving into the Data: Key Findings from the 2015 Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Report

In our continuing blog post series about the 2015 Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Report (GSB), this week we are tackling the key findings section of the report. Get the Report Members, remember you can download the GSB for free. The report can also be purchased from our store at cof.org/2015salary…

Washington Snapshot - June 3, 2016

News from the Hill International Tax Reform Blueprint Forthcoming Despite the condensed Congressional session due to the upcoming elections, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) asserts that his Task Force on Tax Reform will release a substantive blueprint for tax reform before the end of this month. Though…

Community Foundations Update - June 2016

It is my goal to bring to you monthly updates on Council activities relevant to community foundations. Further, I am reaching out to you today to introduce myself as the new Director of Community Philanthropy at the Council on Foundation.  As a former community foundation CEO in Indiana, I…

2016 HR Summit: Investing in the Talent Pipeline

The 2016 HR Summit: Investing in the Talent Pipeline, co-hosted by the Council on Foundations and CHANGE Philanthropy (formerly JAG), is your unique opportunity to learn how to make your foundation — and philanthropy as a whole — more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. During this…

Ask the Expert: What Will the New DOL Overtime Rule Mean for You?

On May 18, President Obama and Secretary Perez of the Department of Labor (DOL) announced the publication of a final rule updating the overtime regulations. The Final Rule increases the salary threshold for eligibility of overtime compensation from $455 to $913 per week ($47,476 annually for a full…

World Humanitarian Summit: Philanthropy's Presence and Potential

This post originally appeared on the Alliance Magazine blog.  At the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in Istanbul, more than 6000 attendees discussed how the global community delivers aid for the world’s most vulnerable people, especially given commitments to leave no one behind within the…

Washington Snapshot - May 27, 2016

News from the Hill This Week in Tax Reform The discussion around tax reform is still alive and well, as demonstrated by hearings this week in both the House and the Senate. On Tuesday, Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) of the Senate Finance Committee held a second hearing on corporate tax integration:…

2015 Full Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Report

I’m pleased to share with you that the 2015 Full Grantmakers Salary and Benefits (GSB) Report is now available for immediate download. What is the GSB Report? Published since 1980, the GSB Report is an essential foundation operations tool. The research includes responses from 951 foundations…
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