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. 

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Disaster Relief: A Practical Guide for Foundations and Corporations

Publication
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,…

Leadership Development: An Essential Investment for Nonprofits

This post is part of the #CF100 Series of blog posts. The Council on Foundations is marking the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first community foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, by highlighting the roles of community foundations with this series. See where it all began at our Fall…

A Stellar Community: Community Foundation heightens Stellar Community effort

This post is part of the #CF100 Series of blog posts. The Council on Foundations is marking the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first community foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, by highlighting the roles of community foundations with this series. See where it all began at our Fall…

Record Retention for Foundations

Legal Compliance Guidance
Foundation recordkeeping is an inherently dull topic—unless it’s done wrong. The foundation manager who has not kept adequate documentation regarding expenditure responsibility grants risks an IRS audit. Similarly, a foundation manager confronted with a trustee succession battle will find the…

Administrative Fees

Fundamentals
Community foundations have one thing in common: When it comes to administrative fee structures, no two are alike. While there's no one right answer, it's important to review and compare your foundation’s fee structure to other foundations of comparable size. Many community foundations are doing…

FAQ: Global Grantmaking

Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
What are the legal requirements for private foundations wishing to make cross-border grants? What is equivalency determination? What is expenditure responsibility? How do I decide whether to use equivalency determination or expenditure responsibility? What are the legal requirements…

It Takes a Community to Build a Community Foundation

This post is part of the #CF100 Series of blog posts. The Council on Foundations is marking the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first community foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, by highlighting the roles of community foundations with this series. See where it all began at our Fall…

Avid about AVID: Student credits success to Destino grantee

This post is part of the #CF100 Series of blog posts. The Council on Foundations is marking the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first community foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, by highlighting the roles of community foundations with this series. See where it all began at our Fall…

Charitable IRA Portfolio

Toolkit
The Charitable IRA Portfolio is a collection of tools designed to help communicate the exciting giving opportunities available to donors.  Revised to reflect recent legislative changes, the portfolio includes: Talking points, a fact sheet, and Web content An event presentation Tools that…

Duty, Honor, Country: Supporting Those Who Have Served

As a nation we cherish the value of service. Few among us take this spirit to heart more than our men and women in uniform. Coming from all walks of life, they join forces to safeguard our country. Americans are proud of their men and wom­en in uniform and are quick to honor the sac­rifices made…

FAQ: Scholarships

Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
What are the advantages, disadvantages, and likely costs of scholarship programs? What do the private foundation rules require, and how should community foundations apply the rules? What rules or procedures govern community foundation scholarship programs? Does a community foundation need to…

Conflicts of Interest - Key Issues for Foundations

Legal Compliance Guidance
With Congress and the media focusing on corporate governance and foundation administration, now is the time to make sure that all grantmakers have a strong conflict of interest policy in place. Both private foundations and public charities (such as community foundations) should have clear…

Foundation Basics

Fundamentals
What is a charitable organization? What is a foundation? What is a private foundation? What is a public charity? Do charities pay taxes? What are some key differences between a public charity and a private foundation? What are some different kinds of private foundations? What are the…

Recommended Best Practices in Managing Foundation Investments

Fundamentals
The Council's Board of Directors released this guidance memorandum in March 2010 and strongly recommends that when reviewing and approving foundation investment policies and procedures practices, all foundations—private and public—consider these best practices in foundation investment management.

The Second a Disaster Strikes

This post is part of the #CF100 Series of blog posts. The Council on Foundations is marking the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first community foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, by highlighting the roles of community foundations with this series. See where it all began at our Fall…

Creating a Welcoming Community

This post is part of the #CF100 Series of blog posts. The Council on Foundations is marking the 100th anniversary of the nation’s first community foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, by highlighting the roles of community foundations with this series. See where it all began at our Fall…
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