Total transactions represent the number of gifts and grants processed annually (including supporting organizations). The average transaction size represents the total dollar value of gifts plus the total dollar value of grants divided by the total number of transactions.
Gifts per capita is calculated by dividing the foundation’s total gifts (including supporting organizations) by the population of the foundation’s service area. The service area is defined by each community foundation.
The distribution rate is calculated by dividing the foundation’s total grants by total assets (including supporting organizations) at the end of the foundation’s fiscal year. The percentage of total assets in donor-advised funds (Percent Total Assets DAF) is the total amount of IRS-classified donor-advised funds divided by total foundation assets.
The following is a list of Annual Survey participants sorted by asset size, supplemented by publicly available information where available.
Over two-thirds of responding community foundations carried an operating surplus at the end of FY24. Community foundations rely mainly on administrative fees as their main source of revenue, with other income sources helping to cover operating costs, and unrestricted funds making up for any remaining shortfall. Relying on unrestricted funds for that purpose, however, may have an impact on the extent to which a community foundation can invest in community leadership or other mission-driven initiatives. (n=230)
80% of responding community foundations (n=165) grew their operating budgets over the previous year. Across nearly all asset size cohorts, close to two-thirds of the average community foundation’s operating budget go toward its staff (n=184).
Administrative fees are a near universal driver of operating revenues among community foundations, though there are some variances among and within different asset size cohorts. Many community foundations engage in direct fundraising from individual donors to support operations, take distributions from operating endowments, and bring in additional earned revenues by providing paid services such as philanthropic advising for other local foundations or renting out space for local events or other uses.
This ratio is a shorthand way to refer to the “leanness” of a community foundation’s operating model but is highly informed by several factors such as the local cost of living and the depth of the foundation’s investment in various forms of community leadership. Larger community foundations will achieve an economy of scale that keeps their expense to asset ratios low relative to smaller peers. Across all asset size cohorts, the median ratio increased slightly over FY24 levels as operating budgets increased across much of the field. (n=232)
Larger community foundations tend to have specialized staff roles to serve large, diverse portfolios of donors who may require different levels of service, with additional roles in place to advance mission-driven community leadership efforts. Staff at smaller community foundations often serve multiple roles and are more likely to work directly with a larger proportion of that foundation’s donors. (n=234)
Just under 90% of reporting community foundations said that they have a policy in place to ensure that donors recommend a grant from their DAFs within some agreed-upon number of years. Per such policies, the community foundation housing the DAF may take steps to activate the funds should the donor not recommend a grant within that time. (n=174)