Public Foundations

Public foundations are grantmaking public charities that gain their funds from a variety of sources, which may include foundations, individuals, corporations, or public entities. Public foundations may engage in fundraising, and may seek broad public financial support. They may or may not have endowments. There is no legal definition of a public foundation, but most dedicate a significant portion of their annual budgets to grantmaking. Most community foundations are also grantmaking public charities.

Since public foundations may be defined in different ways, and there is no official IRS or legal definition of public foundations, it is difficult to arrive at statistics that are fully representative of the field.

Below is everything on our site for public foundations. We strongly 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/programs-services/public-grantmaking-charities for curated public foundation content. 

Hurricane Sandy Treated as Qualified Disaster

Grantmakers should be advised that Hurricane Sandy is a “qualified disaster” for federal tax purposes. Under IRS rules, this means that employers may more easily assist employees affected by the disaster. Employers and their related foundations may make payments for reasonable and necessary…

Analysis of Type III Supporting Organization Regulations Issued December 28, 2012

Legal Compliance Guidance
On December 28, 2012, the Treasury Department and IRS issued final and temporary regulations on Type III supporting organizations. Simultaneously, proposed regulations were issued regarding payout for Type III non-functionally integrated supporting organizations. This analysis focuses on the areas…

Disaster Grantmaking: 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,…

Philanthropy and Rural America

Publication
Rural America is the frontier for philanthropy to test assumptions, take risks, leverage dollars, influence public policy, and learn lessons. Building on a 2008 rural philanthropy conference, this journal captures ideas from the best minds in rural philanthropy. Learn what philanthropy is doing—or…

The Complete Guide to Grantmaking Basics: A Field Guide for Funders

Publication
The Complete Guide to Grantmaking Basics brings together and updates the information, guidance, and tips found in Grantmaking Basics I and II with more essential tools for grantmakers. This book is a practical guide to honing your grantmaking effectiveness and adapting to the changing nonprofit…

Deadline for Career Pathways Program Approaching

The application deadline for the third class of the Council on Foundations’ Career Pathways Program is March 21. Individuals with diverse backgrounds seeking career advancement in the field of philanthropy are encouraged to apply. In two short years, the Career Pathways program has…

Conflicts of Interest at Foundations: Avoiding the Bad and Managing the Good

BoardSource | A partnership of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers and the Council of Michigan Foundations Even the most comprehensive conflict-of-interest policy cannot cover every conceivable situation where there might be the appearance of a conflict. Accordingly, conflict-of-…

Managing Expectations, Coping With Realities

Fundamentals
by Lee Draper Every year, scores of individuals are recruited to join the program staff of foundations. As program officers or directors, they allocate billions of dollars to the nonprofit organizations doing work in our communities and abroad. Despite being charged with such responsibility,…

Charitable Giving

Issue The charitable deduction is a tax provision which allows individuals to reduce their taxable income by the total amount of charitable contributions they made in that tax year (with some limitations, depending of the type of gift—i.e. cash, stocks, property—or the type of organization…
Subscribe to Public Foundations