Larger community foundations tend to hold specialized staff roles to serve large, diverse sets of donors who may require different levels and types of service. For smaller community foundations, staff will often serve multiple roles and are more likely to work directly with a higher number of donors. (n=191)

Larger community foundations will achieve an economy of scale that keeps their expense to asset ratio relatively low compared to smaller peers. This ratio is a shorthand to understand 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. (n=188)

Slightly fewer than half of all community foundations in the sample ended FY23 with an operating surplus, after two straight years in which two-thirds of the sample carried a surplus at year-end. Typically, administrative fees will be supplemented by other sources of revenue to support operations, with unrestricted dollars covering any remaining shortfall, though this will impact the ability of the community foundation to make or deepen an investment in efforts of community leadership and other mission-aligned initiatives.

Operating budgets remained relatively flat in this year’s sample (n=143) with a median increase of 2%. Across all asset size cohorts, roughly two-thirds of the operating budget will go toward staff expenses on average (n=184).

While administrative fees assessed on donor funds will nearly always provide most of the revenue needed to support operations, direct fundraising from individual donors, internal distributions from the community foundation’s operating funds, and fee for service revenue provide additional support.