• What is a community foundation?
• What is community philanthropy?
• Are community foundations a common form of charitable giving?
• Who gives to community foundations?
• What are the main activities of a community foundation?

What is a community foundation?

A community foundation is a nonprofit organization that collaborates with donors and other private and public partners to enhance the quality of life in a particular geographic region—a neighborhood, a town or city, a county, a state or a tribal nation. As a leader in community philanthropy, a community foundation builds permanent funds contributed by many separate donors for the broad-based charitable benefit of that region.

Unlike a more traditional nonprofit, whose focus usually is to raise money to advance a single charitable cause such as a museum collection, a homeless shelter or cancer research, a community foundation makes grants to advance a range of charitable activities. A community foundation identifies critical issues to address communities’ current and future needs, offering professional expertise and local knowledge as their primary products to community groups and donors. In short, a community foundation’s value to society goes far beyond the money it grants.

What is community philanthropy?

Community philanthropy is the practice of building resources from within a community on behalf of that community. A community foundation is a very flexible, useful and popular form of community philanthropy whose work creates public awareness and understanding about the value and impact of giving to one’s community. It is a great mechanism for establishing and growing permanent funds that a community can use to help create its desired future—today and tomorrow.

Are community foundations a common form of charitable giving?

Community foundations are a primary form of community philanthropy in the United States, with nearly 700 community foundations nationwide that serve tens of thousands of donors and administer more than $31 billion in charitable funds. There are nearly 1,500 community foundations worldwide.

Who gives to community foundations?

Individuals, families, businesses, foundations, civic groups, government agencies and other nonprofit organizations are among the partners who work with community foundations to create funds that help meet the challenges of changing times. A community foundation invests and administers these funds through grants, special programs and other initiatives.

What are the main activities of a community foundation?

Community foundations serve as a grant making resource for nonprofit, civic, government and philanthropic organizations while providing leadership, expertise and capital to address social issues. Community foundations offer donors a range of charitable giving options and strategic advice about philanthropy.

In general, community foundations:

• Act on a wide range of issues and ideas in that area
• Exercise leadership on critical community issues
• Receive gifts and make gifts
• Steward many donors, each of whom chooses the focus for their gift
• Hold many kinds of funds—some endowed, some not
• Focus on building permanent endowments, or community savings accounts, whose annual interest earnings are used to make grants to nonprofit organization or to fund other activities in the community