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. 

Tax Reporting for Supporting Organizations

Legal Compliance Guidance
Affected transactions: Returns filed for taxable years ending after August 17, 2006. Are all supporting organizations required to file Form 990? Yes. Prior to the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, public charities that normally received less than $25,000 in annual gross receipts…

Guidance for Donor Advised Funds, Supporting Organizations, and Employer Disaster Funds

Legal Compliance Guidance
This resource is a Council Summary of IRS Interim Guidance found in IRS Notice 2006-109, issued December 6, 2006, and explains steps for determining supporting organization status, and important information on the employer disaster relief fund exemption. Responding to requests from the Council on…

Changes in Intermediate Sanctions for Supporting Organizations (Types I, II and III)

Effective Dates The expansion of the definition of disqualified persons is effective for transactions after the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA)’s date of enactment (August 17, 2006). The provisions for new automatic excess benefit transactions are effective retroactively, applying to…

Provisions Affecting Supporting Organizations

Legal Compliance Guidance
This chart outlines all provisions that affect the operations of supporting organizations.

Permissible Grantees for Donor Advised Funds

Legal Compliance Guidance
This chart details which organizations can receive grants from donor-advised funds and which ones cannot.

Scholarship Funds and PPA Compliance

Legal Compliance Guidance
Bringing Funds Into Compliance The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) includes the first comprehensive regulation of donor-advised funds. For the first time, donor-advised funds are legally defined. The legal definition is important for grantmakers that operate various kinds of component funds,…

Prohibited Benefits from Donor Advised Funds

Fundamentals, Legal Compliance Guidance
Donors and advisors are prohibited from receiving more than incidental benefits from grants made from their advised funds. Penalties apply to those who received a prohibited benefit, to those who recommended the grant, and, in some situations, to fund managers who approved the recommendation.…

Tax Reporting for Organizations that Hold Donor-Advised Funds

Legal Compliance Guidance
If our organization holds donor-advised funds, what information must we provide on Form 990? A sponsoring organization, such as a community foundation, must disclose on Schedule D, Part I of its 990 the following information: Number of donor-advised funds owned; Aggregate value of assets held…

Intermediate Sanctions for Donor Advised Funds and Sponsoring Organizations

Fundamentals, Legal Compliance Guidance
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 created new categories of disqualified persons for donor advised funds and sponsoring organizations under the intermediate sanctions rules. Categories of Disqualified Persons Created under the PPA Donors and donor advisors with regard to transactions with the…

Excess Business Holdings Rules for Donor Advised Funds

Legal Compliance Guidance
Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), the private foundation excess business holdings rule applies to donor-advised funds as if they were private foundations.1 That is, the holdings of a donor-advised fund in a business enterprise, together with the holdings of persons who are…

Council Summary: Congressional Research Service Report on Donor-Advised Funds

Legal Compliance Guidance
The Congressional Research Service issued a 2012 report on charitable giving and donor-advised funds. Using data from Form 990, the report updates to 2008 some of the statistical information about donor-advised funds that was included in the 2011 Treasury report on donor-advised funds. However, the…

Pension Protection Act

The Pension Protection Act (PPA) was signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 17, 2006. The PPA was designed to improve pension plan funding requirements of employers, as well as 401(k), IRA, and other retirement plans. The PPA also included numerous provisions that affect charitable…

Attracting Contributions from Private Foundations

Legal Compliance Guidance
The legal and tax implications for community foundations accepting donations from private foundations, and qualifying distributions of taxable expenditures. Additional insight into converting a private foundation into a supporting organization of a community foundation.

Substantiating Contributions to Donor-Advised Funds

Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
What requirements must our foundation follow for substantiating contributions to donor-advised funds? To claim a charitable, gift or estate tax deduction for any contribution to a donor-advised fund, donors must obtain a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from the sponsoring organization that…

State Charitable Solicitation Compliance

External Resource, Legal Compliance Guidance
Most states have registration and/or reporting laws that apply to nonprofit organizations soliciting contributions within the state. Information about registration is available through individual states or the Multi-State Filer Project.

Conducting a Raffle Fundraiser

Legal Compliance Guidance
Community foundations occasionally consider conducting a raffle as a way to raise money for a particular fund. The plan may be to do a raffle as a standalone fundraiser or as part of another community foundation event. In many cases, donors approach community foundations asking to conduct the…
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