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. 

Providing Large Grants to Small Grantees

Legal Compliance Guidance
Lawyers rarely tell foundation managers, "Relax, don’t worry so much!" But in the case of "tipping," that’s been our advice for more than 10 years. What is the so-called "tipping problem" and why are so many foundations (still) so worried about it?   Tipping occurs when a private…

To Check or Not to Check: Complying With OFAC Regulations

Legal Compliance Guidance
After September 11, 2001, many grantmakers and other charitable organizations that were not previously familiar with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), learned of its existence. As one of the key U.S. government agencies seeking to shut down terrorism funding…

The Debate Over Anti-Terrorism Certification

Legal Compliance Guidance
In an effort to ensure that charitable resources are used exclusively for charitable purposes and not used to support terrorist activity, organizations may choose to adopt practices in addition to those explicitly required by law. Among the practices that some charities choose to adopt is including…

Multi-Year Grants: To Commit or Not to Commit

Legal Compliance Guidance
Can we back out of a multiyear commitment we made in a prior year because our foundation’s assets have declined? The answer in many cases is “no.” That is, unless your grantee is willing to release your foundation from its obligation. Generally, an unconditional, multiyear grant is considered a…

Community Foundations and Grants to Non-Charities

Legal Compliance Guidance
With a little caution, community foundations can support the charitable activities of non-charities. A chamber of commerce requests a grant to start a computer-training program. A gardening club asks for money to cover a local beautification project. A cemetery association seeks support for…

Faith-based Grantmaking: A Basic Guide for the Perplexed

Legal Compliance Guidance
Generally, there is no legal restriction against making grants to churches, synagogues, mosques or other religious institutions. But there are some things foundations interested in such grantmaking should know. For years, private foundations and public charities have recognized religious…

Understanding Fiscal Sponsorship

Legal Compliance Guidance
Everything you need to know to stay out of trouble with third-party representatives. Does hearing the sentence "Just make that grant check payable to my fiscal agent" stop you in your tracks? It should. If your potential grantees are washing your grant funds through an accommodating charity that…

Donor Advised Fund Gift to a 501(c)(3) Donor

Legal Compliance Guidance
Can a 501(c)(3) organization with a donor advised fund at a community foundation make a distribution to itself? Unfortunately, when the law changed under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, this was left unclear. Intermediate sanctions rules prohibit grants and similar payments to donors from a…

Problems With Funds for Pre-Selected Individuals

In the community foundation world, donors often seek to create funds for the benefit of a designated individual or small group of people: for example, an individual with enormous medical bills, a family blessed with quintuplets, or a family that has lost its primary wage earner. Although…

Supporting Individual Missionaries through Religious Organizations

Individual taxpayers cannot take a charitable deduction for making a gift to an individual, even when channeled through a charitable institution, no matter how deserving of charity the recipient may be. Dewey Diligence, a program officer at the Acme Community Foundation, was accustomed to having…

Increasing the Number and Size of Awards

Legal Compliance Guidance
When donors to scholarship funds see the impact that their money can have on the life of a student, they are often inspired to contribute more. Sometimes they will add more to the principal of the fund so that future awardees can receive bigger scholarships or more scholarships can be awarded.…

Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Plan

Sample Document
Community foundations have proven themselves to be cornerstones of support to the community, especially in times of need and disaster.  When emergencies or disasters strike, the Foundation must be well-prepared to quickly and effectively help itself in order to be able to help others. This…

From Chaos to Community

The guide aims to inspire individuals and citizen groups to act in organized, effective ways to help people in communities hit by disasters to reclaim their future. It includes concrete suggestions and clear steps towards recovering and re-establishing a sense of security, safety, and vitality in…

Principles of Good Disaster Grantmaking

Moved by widely publicized human suffering and increased disaster aid requests, foundations and corporations are becoming more active in the disaster relief field. Grantmakers have a distinct role to play in disasters because of their ongoing relations with grantees, long-term perspective,…

Military Aid: How Grantmakers Can Support Military Personnel

Americans may disagree about various aspects of war, but there is broad support for helping the men and women who are fighting in wars and the families they have left behind. Dedicated assistance groups are working to provide aid to military personnel and their relatives. This article surveys the…

Providing Relief in Times of Disaster - Grants to New Charities

Legal Compliance Guidance
Ideally, grantmakers will work with an existing charity or other well-established organization to provide disaster relief. But in the months after a disaster, it is not uncommon to see new charities cropping up in efforts to meet the immense and diverse needs of the affected communities. The…
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