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.

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…

IRS Publication 1771: Charitable Contributions–Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements

External Resource

Explains the federal tax law for organizations such as charities and churches that receive tax-deductible charitable contributions, and for taxpayers who make contributions.

Rules Governing Non-Component Funds

Legal Compliance Guidance

Historical background of non-component and donor-directed funds.

Returning Contributions to Donors

Fundamentals

Community foundations occasionally receive a request for money back from donors of advised funds and organizations that have established designated funds or agency endowments. This article discusses why the proper answer is a firm "no"—and some polite ways to communicate the community foundation's…

Creating a Donor-Initiated Fundraising Policy

Sample Document

Community foundations are often faced with requests from donors or local volunteers who wish to express their support by raising money for the community foundation or for a particular fund. When volunteers engage in fundraising activities on behalf of the community foundation (a practice called…

IRS Publication 4302: A Charity's Guide to Car Donations

Legal Compliance Guidance, External Resource

Types of car donation programs and their impact on tax-exempt status, taxable income, and deductible contributions.

Gifts of Tangible Personal Property

Legal Compliance Guidance

A donor is considering starting a fund at the community foundation using a piece of jewelry instead of a cash gift. The jewelry cost her $1,000 (35 years ago) and is now worth $20,000. May the community foundation accept the gift? What documentation must the community foundation prepare? From the…

Gifts of Property: What to Know Before You Say Yes

Legal Compliance Guidance

There is always the temptation, particularly among newly established community foundations, to accept any type of contribution. When a contribution consists of property other than cash, however, it must be determined if it is in the community foundation’s best interests to accept such property. Are…

Accepting Non-Cash Gifts as Charitable Contributions

Legal Compliance Guidance

Accepting gifts of real estate, subchapter S corporations, and business interests (including general partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and limited liability companies), as well as determining when or if they trigger unrelated business tax (UBIT).

Taxable Distributions for Donor Advised Funds

Fundamentals, Legal Compliance Guidance

Public charities that hold donor advised funds must comply with special rules regarding payments from such funds. Provisions under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 require certain payments from donor advised funds to be made using expenditure responsibility, while certain other payments are…

Grants to Organizations from Donor-Advised Funds: Is Expenditure Responsibility Required?

Legal Compliance Guidance

Use this flowchart to determine if grants from donor-advised funds require expenditure responsibility.

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…