Donor-advised funds (DAFs) housed at community foundations represent a significant portion of the funds held in the field, and unsurprisingly experienced the same negative year over year changes in assets and fundraising that the field saw more broadly. Still, DAFs remain a highly active vehicle for philanthropy within the field, as the median community foundation reported a 13 percent increase in DAF grantmaking over 2021 levels.
The collective asset total among all reporting community foundations is 10 percent lower than the collective total for 2021. During a year in which the broader economy was experiencing a significant decline which impacted invested assets, 84 percent of all participating community foundations reported a negative year over year change in their asset totals, while 50 percent reported a decrease in fundraising totals from 2021.
The findings presented in this snapshot are based on data collected from over 220 community foundations reflecting fiscal year 2022, sourced from a combination of CF Insights Annual Survey responses and publicly available financial statements. The Council extends our thanks to all who have contributed data to inform these findings.
Faced with rising social division and discord, the philanthropic sector is increasingly pursuing strategies to connect and collaborate across differences and counteract toxic polarization. In 2023, the Council, PACE, and New Pluralists teamed up to conduct a landscape scan to better understand how funders are currently investing and engaging with work related to bridging, belonging, conflict transformation, pluralism, and building common ground. This webinar provided a sneak peek at the key findings in advance of the release of the full report this spring and learn how you can develop the heartset, mindset, and skillset to bridge differences through two exciting Council programs, Building Together and the Bridging Differences Leadership Cohort (applications for the 2024 cohort are open now and will be due February 23, 2024).
Interested in delving further into the most recent CF Insights survey of community foundations? Curious about ways your community foundation can make the most of the data?
During this webinar, David Rosado, the Council’s Senior Advisor for Community Philanthropy, discussed the latest findings from the FY22 CF Insights Annual Survey, and showcased how to use the CF Insights benchmarking tool to access individual community foundation peer data. David was joined by two staff leaders from the Park County Community Foundation, who discussed how they leveraged CF Insights data that guided their internal decision-making.
We invite you to explore the latest CF Insights Results data and findings from the CF Insights FY22 Annual Survey.
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.
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.
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.
Larger community foundations tend to maintain relatively complex operating models that require a higher number of specialized staff. For smaller community foundations, staff will often serve multiple roles, and are more likely to each service a higher number of donors on average. (n=179)