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. 

West-Central Minnesota Wins Big Through Endowment Challenge

This past January, awards season wasn’t just in Hollywood. In west-central Minnesota, West Central Initiative (WCI) awarded a share of $75,000 to 15 of its component funds for successfully meeting WCI’s 25th Anniversary Endowment Challenge. In the spring of 2011, WCI—a regional community foundation…

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation Helps Give Community an EDGE

The city of Charleston, W.Va., is embarking on a new beginning as it molds a revolutionary program for young professionals: Early Dynamic Guided Engagement (EDGE). The three-year program offers recent college graduates the opportunity to live in the heart of downtown Charleston for a subsidized…

Woods, Trees, and the Rise of African Philanthropy

In the early 1990s, I spent a year living and working in Uganda. One day I was with some friends driving back from a trip to one of the beautiful game parks there. It was late afternoon and not long before darkness would set in. We decided to pitch our tents by the side of the long and sparsely…

Stepping Boldly Into the Big, Bright Digital Age

The Knight Digital Media Center is expanding its reach to help community foundations shape their strategies to inform and engage communities in the digital age. To reflect this new emphasis, we have redesigned and refocused the KDMC website as a learning resource for community foundations and…

Telling Philanthropy’s Story

There are 717 community foundations in the United States making grants of about $4.6 billion in their communities. I know because it’s on the cover of a publication about community foundations. What I don’t know is why anyone would care. It’s not just that we should be talking about the impact that…

Reflections from the Fall Conference

As a young professional and a newcomer to the field of philanthropy, the sessions at the Council on Foundations Fall Conference in New Orleans earlier this month offered a lot in the way of introduction. Not only an introduction to new colleagues from all over the map, but also to variations of the…

Donor-Advised Funds and Foundations—The Secret Recipe for Success

It’s a continuing debate with foundation management: What are we going to do with our donor-advised funds (DAF)? Do you grow this area with time and resources? And if so, are the risks finally being offset by a greater return at the foundation level? There is no denying that DAF programs are…

Sharing Best Practices and Making New Connections

In my last job, the learning curve seemed to remain vertical for much of my tenure, occasionally even tipping backwards. As is often the case in nonprofit organizations, the person I replaced had left somewhat suddenly and with much of the information about the position, although probably neatly…

Sharpening Our Pencils, Sharpening Our Impact

Though the scalding heat of summer is likely to last for at least another month in Arkansas, the summer season is ending for many students as they prepare to return to school. As these students soon will do, funders and government staff recently gathered with sharpened pencils to learn together at…

Mobilizing Business Champions for Children

What do Texas preschooler Owen Hernandez and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have in common?  As you’ll see during the Learning Lab<!--[if !supportNestedAnchors]--><!--[endif]-->, “Business Champions for Young Children,” at next month’s Fall Conference for Community…

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…
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