Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.s are typically

endowed A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...

by an individual or a single family.

Operation

Community foundations are independent registered philanthropic institutions serving geographically defined territory, typically a city or administrative area (county, region and the like). The six main characteristics of the CFs are: # Act as grant-making foundations – e.g. give grants to support development projects # Their mission broadly defined – e.g. to improve quality of life in a community # Serve geographically defined communities – a city, state, region, district or province # Are supported by a broad range of private as well as public donors and seek philanthropic contributions primarily from inside the community # Are governed by multi-sectoral, local boards reflecting the community # Build capital endowment, which is an important element of sustainability It is a combination of all these basic characteristics what makes true CF, although there are many other types of community organizations that have some of these characteristics. Families, individuals, businesses, and nonprofit groups establish funds within community foundations into which they can contribute a variety of assets to be used for charitable purposes. The people or organizations that establish the funds can then recommend that grants be distributed, in the name of the fund or anonymously, to qualified nonprofit groups and schools. In the USA the donor receives a charitable tax deduction in the year that gifts are made into their funds, but not all countries where community foundations currently operate provide such incentives for donors. Increasingly, community foundations are hosting giving circles as a way to further support giving in their communities. The assets of community foundations are pooled and invested, with donors typically having a choice of investment products. The funds established at community foundations can be non-endowed or expendable funds (i.e., the corpus of the fund can be spent in its entirety) or they can be endowed, which limit distributions to the interest earned on the assets and/or the amount granted by the foundation as long as the corpus is not spent. Endowments last in perpetuity due to the corpus never being able to be spent.

History of community foundations

The first community foundation was set up in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

in 1914 by Frederick Goff and operates now as The Cleveland Foundation. Others soon followed including the

California Community Foundation The California Community Foundation (CCF) is a philanthropic organization located in Los Angeles, California. Foundation Center, an independent nonprofit organization, ranks it among the top 100 foundations in the nation by asset size and total ...

and the

Chicago Community Trust The Chicago Community Trust (the Trust) is the community foundation serving Chicago, suburban Cook County, and the Illinois counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will. Established on May 12, 1915, it is the third largest community foundation ...

. The first Community Foundation in Canada,

The Winnipeg Foundation The Winnipeg Foundation is a registered charity and community foundation based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Established in 1921, it is the oldest community foundation in Canada. The Foundation is dedicated primarily to the social improvement ...

, was established in Winnipeg in 1921. Since the 1980s, a number of

private foundations A private foundation is a tax-exempt organization not relying on broad public support and generally claiming to serve humanitarian purposes. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the U.S. with over $38 billion i ...

in the United States have created initiatives to develop community foundations in various states. One of the earliest such initiatives was in Michigan. In Indiana, the

Lilly Endowment Lilly Endowment Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is one of the world's largest private philanthropic foundations and among the largest endowments in the United States. It was founded in 1937 by Josiah K. (J. K.) Lilly Sr. and his s ...

funded a program that has spurred development of community foundations in each of the state's 92 counties. On a smaller scale, the Grand Victoria Foundation supports development of Illinois community foundations. The Kansas Health Foundation operates a similar program in Kansas communities.

Notable community foundations

Canada

There are 191 community foundations in Canada, accessible to more than 90% of Canadian communities.

was Canada's first community foundation, established in 1921.

United States

According to the latest data available, from October 2014, on the

Foundation Center Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations.Wyland, Michael. "GuideStar Introduces Program Metrics Section for Nonprofit Profile ...

website, the top five largest community foundations, by assets, were: Statistics made available by the Foundation Center enable also financial comparison of the largest community foundations with the largest corporate and private foundations and illustrate the fact that community foundations in the United States tend to be larger than corporate foundations in both assets and grants given.

United Kingdom

There are 46 Community Foundations in the UK and

UK Community Foundations UK Community Foundations (UKCF) is a registered charity that leads a movement of community foundations committed to positive social change in the UK through the development of “ community philanthropy”. Community philanthropy involves people f ...

(formerly the Community Foundation Network) acts as an umbrella organisation for some of them.

References

Publications

{{inline citations, date=March 2015 *Bernholz. L., K. Fulton, and G. Kasper. (2005). "On the brink of new promise: The future of U.S. community foundations." Trade report. Funded by Charles S. Mott Foundation and the Ford Foundation. *Gast, E. (2006). Community foundation handbook: What you need to know. New York: Council on Foundations. *Hall, P.D. (1989). "The community foundation in America, 1914-1987." In Richard Magat, ed., Philanthropic Giving. New York: Oxford University Press. *Hammack, D. (1989). "Community foundations: The delicate question of purpose," in Magat, R., ed. An agile servant: Community leadership by community foundations. New York: The Foundation Center. *Magat, R., ed. (1989). An agile servant: Community leadership by community foundations. New York: The Foundation Center. *

Community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...