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.
Leveraging Narrative Power to Inspire Stronger Communities
Participants in this session will gain insight into their role in supporting place-based, community-driven stories. This session is relevant for communications and program staff, executive leaders, and board members. Because narrative work spans all sectors, both place-based and issue-based funders…
How Funders Can Lead with Humility in Community-Centered Collaboration
What does it look like for funders to truly center the expertise and goals of community? The Houston Economic Growth Collaborative is a multi-sector initiative exploring the potential to invest more than $100M over 10 years in resident-defined priorities. Leaders will share early lessons on…
Listening to Shift Power: Kellogg Foundation's Experience with Participatory Philanthropy in Hawai’i
Fund for Shared Insight, a national funder collaborative, invited funders to a participatory climate initiative in Hawai’i. The Kellogg Foundation, which funds in Hawai’i, and is committed to equity, was a core partner. The effort was designed to involve people most impacted by climate change in…
How Can Foundations Affect Family Economic Stability and System Change
How do funders build lasting change in our communities? The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and The Pew Charitable Trusts share examples of recent partnerships in Tennessee and Minnesota on strategies and tools to address eviction and court-enforced debt collection. This session will…
High-Quality Ways to Hear Directly From Communities
Many funders rely on feedback from grantees to improve their grantmaking, but hesitate to go right to the source and listen to the people at the heart of their work. It can be daunting to listen directly to communities, but it’s an essential part of responsible stewardship and equitable strategies…
Getting to 100% Mission Alignment
Join us for a thought-provoking conversation, designed for organizational leaders and foundation investment professionals, that challenges the conventional philanthropic dialogue on grantmaking. Rather than focusing solely on the 5% spending debate, we will discuss the often overlooked 95% of funds…
Lunch Plenary Session: Funding the Rural-Urban Connection
Rural and urban communities need each other. But while their interdependence plays out in their economies, cultures, and environments, prevailing narratives center on differences and divides. Meanwhile, rural communities account for close to 20 percent of the population, but they receive only 7…
Breakfast Plenary Session: From Rupture to Repair
The journey beyond toxic polarization and record levels of mistrust begins when we reknit the fabric of our civic lives: our places, our institutions, and, most importantly, our relationships. A critical first step is to take responsibility for harm and actively work to repair the ties that have…
Examining Your Foundation's Systems Through an Equity Lens
Hosted by Community Foundation Opportunity Network (CFON)
Join us for an opportunity to examine and gain a deeper understanding of the internal systems change needed for community foundations (and other grantmaking organizations) to authentically engage in external systems change and equity work.…
Moving from Surviving to Thriving Using the Vital Conditions for Health and Wellbeing Framework
Healthy Communities Delaware (HCD), a public private initiative of the Delaware Community Foundation, and ReThink Health, an initiative of the Rippel Foundation are partnering to catalyze and foster thriving communities. Learn how HCD leverages the Vital Conditions for Health and Wellbeing…
Engaging Communities Across Geography
How do community foundations engage people across expansive geographies to support local communities and yet achieve economies of scale to maximize the impact their work? This session will explore various models of community foundations attempting to do this work-- from the traditional affiliate…
Developing Community Co-Designed Strategy
A few years ago, U.S. Bank started working on place-based investment programs. To help build out the strategy of the programs, USB partnered with the community to create design sessions that were community-led and community-focused. U.S. Bank learned a lot through this process about how to center…
New Approaches to Disaster Recovery
On December 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire burned over 1,000 homes in Boulder County, CO. As Boulder County’s trusted philanthropic partner for over 30 years, The Community Foundation Boulder County (CFBC) quickly opened a disaster fund, raising over $43 million. CFBC’s trauma-informed, people-first…
Lunch Plenary Session: Partnering for Resilience and Justice
How are community and place-based funders partnering with communities to build resilience? With a commitment to righting past wrongs, responding to crises, and preparing for future challenges. Join us as we celebrate this year’s HUD Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic…
Partnering to Identify Overlooked Artists, Increase Visibility, and Build Community
The first step to greater investment in historically under-resourced communities is making the unknown known -- identifying who is out there and where they live and work. In 2024, two place-based funders, working in partnership with the public sector and an equity-forward researcher, created a…
Partnering with Youth Programs to Expand Impact
Solutions to challenges in our communities often require expertise and insight from many stakeholders, yet we struggle to engage with those who may be different from us, specifically intergenerationally. This session will describe a case study pairing youth with grantees to amplify voices and co-…