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. 

'Hate Groups' Received Millions From 351 Charities and Foundations, Chronicle Review Finds

At least 351 donor organizations have made millions of dollars in grants over the past seven years to nonprofits designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups. Most of the money came from a small number of larger donor-advised funds managed by community foundations or commercially…

Philanthropists Across the Political Divide Must Work Together to Cure Extremism

The U.S. Capitol insurrection and the deeply politicized impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump put into sharp focus that America’s body politic is seriously ill. We are, in fact, contending with parallel pandemics. While our political malady may be less immediately deadly than the…

501(c)(3)s and Public Policy Violation: A Fresh Look at Doctrine

Bob Jones University recently announced that it will regain its tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status on March 1, 2017. The University lost its tax exemption more than 30 years ago in a landmark Supreme Court case, Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983), due…

Horizon Forum: What Do the Experts Say: The Free Speech, Hate Speech Debate

As current levels of social and political polarization reach new heights, so do discussions about extremism, disinformation, and hate speech. But what do these terms mean for institutions such as philanthropy, technology, and media which …

GlobalGiving: Trump Is Right-And Wrong-About Section 230

Dive into Section 230 of the United States Communications Decency Act with GlobalGiving CEO Alix Guerrier, and discover why it matters to a nonprofit on a mission to accelerate community-led change—and you.

GlobalGiving: A Journey Into The Neutrality Paradox

When and how should digital platforms—designed to be open and democratic—take responsibility for the content they host, and when should they take a stance—departing from a position of neutrality? GlobalGiving is on a journey to explore these issues, and is inviting you to join the exploration.

Greater Milwaukee Foundation: A Journey in Racial Equity and Inclusion

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is Wisconsin’s largest community foundation and since 1915, has partnered with generous donors to strengthen the region in every way imaginable. Over these many years, the Foundation has grown along with the community it serves, expanding on its founding purpose as…

Fidelity and Schwab Ban Gifts From Donor-Advised Funds to NRA-Affiliated Charities

The two biggest donor-advised-fund sponsors in the United States, Fidelity Charitable and Schwab Charitable, have banned new donations to 501(c)(3) organizations affiliated with the National Rifle Association, citing reports of Internal Revenue Service investigations into the gun rights group’s…

Horizon Forum: What Do the Experts Say: Sector Responses to Hate Speech

As the problems of political polarization, extremism, and hate speech increasingly impact public life in the United States, various sectors have responded in ways unique to their own circumstances and institutions. Social media companies, in particular, have become contentious sites of debate over…

WaPo: Kroger unknowingly funneled donations to a militant group. After the Capitol riots, it's cutting it off.

When Kroger launched its community rewards program more than seven years ago, the supermarket chain pitched the initiative as a way shoppers could support charities of their choosing. But, the company said Tuesday, one of the nonprofit groups being funded through the program was the…

Atlanta Daily World: Major charity distances itself from donations to controversial groups

A prominent charitable foundation in the South is attempting to distance itself from a controversial network of anti-immigration and population-control groups that it has funded following published reports about the foundation’s contributions to these groups.

SPLC: Donors Pumped Millions into White Nationalist Group

Donors gave the prominent white nationalist hate group VDARE $4.3 million in 2019, over eight times more than the year before, according to tax records the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) obtained and shared with Hatewatch.

SPLC: Bankrolling Bigotry: An Overview of the Online Funding Strategies of American Hate Groups

Hatred is surging across the United States. Figures released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) suggest that the number of hate groups rose steadily between 2014 and 2018, including a 55% growth in the number of number of white nationalist groups active between 2017 and 2019. In 2018 the FBI…

Anti-Defamation League: Funding Hate - How White Supremacists Raise Their Money

It’s one of the most frequent questions the Anti-Defamation League gets asked: Where do White supremacists get their money?

Anti-Defamation League and Charles Koch Institute Report: Communities Overcoming Extremism - the After Charlottesville Project

Following the violent extremist, far-right rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11 and 12, 2017, a coalition of civil society organizations came together to form a year-long initiative: Communities Overcoming Extremism: The After Charlottesville Project (COE). COE launched to discover…

SPLC and CAIR Report: Hate Free Philanthropy - Identifying Opportunities and Obstacles to Safeguard the Sector

This white paper aims to help decision-makers accelerate existing efforts to address the complex problem of hate-funding in philanthropy — efforts that are slowly converging in different parts of the country and that demonstrate varying degrees of progress. This effort is, admittedly, the first…
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