Starting & Ending Foundations
The Council on Foundations is a membership organization that supports grantmakers in a variety of ways, including providing best practices in foundation management. The Council provides basic information to help you understand the general steps necessary to start a foundation, but does not provide legal or technical assistance for starting a foundation.
Once your foundation has been established, we would welcome your organization as a member, and provide access to resources to help with ongoing management. Whether on a shorter or longer time arc, many foundations go through the following life cycle: getting started; ongoing operations; and spend down.
With guidance from its board, foundations must decide whether to operate in perpetuity, or to wind down operations. The decision to spend down may be a difficult one, and is often a decision made by its founder or board, based on inputs ranging from donor intent to declining endowments.
The Council on Foundations has created a host of resources to guide you through each step of the foundation life cycle, and can also provide information from its Knowledge Center and Legal departments to help inform your decisions.