Community Foundation Consulting Services

By leveraging CF Insights tools and benchmarking data, the Council can help your community foundation align economics with mission, make informed adjustments to administrative fees, model the effects of broader economic forces on your operations, and more.

Get dedicated support to:

Uncover the net costs of different donor products

By conducting an Activity-Based Costing study, your community foundation will be able to answer questions such as:

Which of our products (including donor-advised funds, scholarships, and more) create surplus revenue that we can reinvest to further our work in other areas?
How can our foundation best position itself for sustainability in a competitive market?
How can we create flexibility in our operating model to deepen our investment in efforts of community leadership?

We offer dedicated support to guide you through the entire process, including:

Leading staff through a time survey to track personnel costs
Compiling and modeling your fully loaded costs, fund activity, and revenues to develop study findings
Presenting the results to your leadership team and board, highlighting actionable findings

Test the impact of a changing economy on sustainability

Develop a simple five-year forecasting model with Economic Scenario Planning, focusing on external variables influenced by the economic environment. We can help you think through how to define your different forecasting scenarios and present the results to your leadership team and board, answering questions such as:

What sources of revenue would have to cover emerging gaps in administrative fees?
How can absolute grant levels be maintained in the next five years through changes in spending policy?
If the market were to see another downturn, will my foundation be able to weather the storm and maintain current operations?

Model strategic changes on overall operations

With the Interactive Strategy Model, you can test the effects of different strategic changes, including adjustments to fees and the addition of staff, on the long-term growth and operation of your community foundation over 10 years. Our team can help you navigate questions such as:

How might we need to adjust fees if we added headcount?
What staffing needs will we create by continuing to grow our DAF portfolio by 10% year over year?
What impact will continued growth in scholarships, at their current minimum fund size, have on their ability to cover their own costs?

Other customized benchmarking project support

We can support you in the creation and execution of a customized peer benchmarking project to help inform decision-making.

Testimonials

2023 is the second time we have participated in the Activity Based Cost Analysis. Not only is it valuable information that helps shape strategic decisions regarding fee structure and focus areas, it also helps educate our board of directors on the ins and outs of fund types and creates meaningful conversation with our team. The extra effort for staff is definitely worth the end product.

Winter Kinne
President & CEO
Community Foundation of the Ozarks

The data provided to us by the Council on Foundation’s costing study has provided valuable data for the staff and Board as we identify areas and services we are subsidizing more than we would like and products for which we should more deeply focus. As a small community foundation with a small staff, the resources provided by Dave and the Council on Foundations team was a great value add to our organization and our Board of Directors. Our staff alone doesn’t have the time to conduct an analysis of our products the way this study did. I know we will use the data from the Study to make informed adjustments to things such as administrative fees, but also internal processes and how we approach products from a staff perspective.

Mary Snow
President & CEO
Coral Gables Community Foundation

At the Orange County Community Foundation, we were faced with the significant challenge of finding a new CFO following the retirement of an individual who had provided nearly 35 years of impeccable service. It was crucial for us to not only fill the position but to envision and define the profile of the CFO of the future, someone who could lead in an evolving financial landscape. In collaboration with our partners at CF Insights, we were able to create a comprehensive CFO profile that not only guided our search but also became a valuable resource for peer community foundations. The profile has been instrumental in assisting with strategic planning and future recruitment efforts, ensuring that foundations like ours are equipped with the financial leadership needed to thrive in the years to come.

Tammy Tumbling
President
Orange County Community Foundation