Community foundation

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Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global phenomenon with 1400 existing around the world of which over 700 are in the United States. A good overview of their global spread is provided by the Community Foundations Global Status Report published by the Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaker Support.

Contents 1 Operation 2 History of community foundations 3 Associations of Community Foundations 4 Notable international CF initiatives include: 5 Some notable community foundations 5.1 Canada 5.2 United States 5.3 United Kingdom 6 Key supporters of community foundations 7 References 8 See also 9 Publications

[edit] 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:

1. Act as grant-making foundations – e.g. give grants to support development projects 2. Their mission broadly defined (e.g. to improve quality of life in a community) 3. Serve geographically defined urban communities – a city, district or province 4. Are supported by a broad range of private as well as public donors and seek philanthropic contributions primarily from inside the community 5. Are governed by multi-sectoral local boards reflecting the community 6. 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 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 expendable funds (i.e., grants can be made in any amount at any time) or they can be endowments, which limit distributions to the interest earned on the assets. Endowments last in perpetuity.

[edit] History of community foundations

The first community foundation was set up in Cleveland in 1914 by Frederick Goff and operates now as the Cleveland Foundation. Others soon followed including the California Community Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. The first Community Foundation in Canada was established in Winnipeg [1] in 1921 and for more than the next 50 years community foundations remained North American phenomenon.

In the early 1980s the CF concept started to spread in the United Kingdom, but the real global spread started a decade later, when CFs started to spread to non-English speaking countries of Europe and elsewhere. The first CF established on the European continent was Healthy City Community Foundation [2] in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, followed shortly by Gutersloh CF in Germany (1996), Stara Bystrzyca CF in Poland (1998), Togliatti CF in Russia (1998), Lecco CF in Italy (1998) and many others. The first CF on the African continent, Uthungulu CF in South Africa was launched in 1999. It is estimated that around 40 countries on all inhabited continents have at least one CF; Canada, Germany and USA have each over 100 CFs, Great Britain over 50 and Australia, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia and Slovakia each more than 10 well established CFs.

To facilitate development of community foundations in developing and transforming countries, the Global Fund for Community Foundations [3]was established in 2006. The fund is currently hosted by the European Foundations Centre [4] and is supported by a number of international private and public donors such as the World Bank [5], The Ford Foundation [6], C.S.Mott Foundation [7], W.K.Kellogg Foundation[8], USAID [9], Arizona CF [10], Silicon Valley CF [11] and others.

[edit] Associations of Community Foundations

A number of countries with a number of CFs have established membership networks. Their websites typically provide a lot of historical data, practical information, contact addresses and much more.

Among the most notable websites of the CF associations are:

Community Foundations of Canada (in English and French) [12], Community Foundations Network (UK) [13], Association of German Community Foundations (in German) [14], Community Foundations Parthership Russia (in Russian) [15].

[edit] Notable international CF initiatives include:

Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaker Support - Community Foundations [16], European Foundation Centre - Community Philanthropy Initiative [17], Transatlantic Community Foundations Network [18], US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership [19].

[edit] Some notable community foundations

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[edit] Canada

• Vancouver Foundation
• Winnipeg Community Foundation
• Hamilton Community Foundation
• Beautiful Plains Community Foundation

[edit] United States

According to the data available in July 2007 on The Foundation Center website [20] the largest community foundations by assets held were Tulsa Community Foundation, the New York Community Trust - both with more than 2 billion US$ in assets - followed by The Cleveland Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, California CF, Marin C and Greater Kansas City CF, each of them with endowments of over 1 billion US$. The 21 largest CFs in the United States each had assets over 500 million US$. Between them, the top four foundations held 24% of the total assets of the 641 community foundations surveyed.

By other measures Tulsa Community Foundation also received the most donations at over $791 million in 2005 but did not make it into the top ten for grants made. The California Community Foundation was second in gifts received ($467 million) and The Community Foundation of Silicon Valley was third ($181 million).

In terms of annual giving, three American CFs gave more than $ 100 million in grants over the year according to the last data available in July 2007. The New York Community Trust gave out the most grants at $157 million, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation was second in grants made ($141 million) and the Greater Houston Community Foundation was third for grants made ($109 million). These were closely followed by Peninsula CF (CA), California CF (CA) and the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, each giving more than $ 90 million. Altogether 17 CFs gave grants over $ 50 million each.

Statistics made available by the Foundation Center [21] enable also financial comparison of the largest CFs with the largest corporate and private foundations and illustrate the fact that CFs in the United States tend to be larger than corporate foundations in both assets and grants given.

The Columbus Foundation also provides information on US community foundations. ^[1]

Largest Community Foundations in the United States (total assets):

1. Tulsa Community Foundation
2. New York Community Trust
3. Silicon Valley Community Foundation [22]
4. The Cleveland Foundation
5. The Chicago Community Trust
6. California Community Foundation

[edit] United Kingdom

• Scottish Community Foundation [23]
• Cornwall Community Foundation
• County Durham Foundation
• York and North Yorkshire Community Foundation
• Community Foundation serving Tyne and Wear and Northumberland
• St Katharine & Shadwell Trust [24]
• Cambridgeshire Community Foundation [25]

[edit] Key supporters of community foundations

• Bertelsmann Foundation
• Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
• Ford Foundation
• Fondazione Cariplo
• The German Marshall Fund of the United States [26]
• Grand Victoria Foundation
• Kansas Health Foundation
• W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Lilly Endowment
• King Baudouin Foundation
• Global Fund for Community Foundations [27]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Occupational safety and health
• Civil society
• Charities
• Foundations
• Endowments
• Non-profit organization
• Public administration
• Social innovation

[edit] Publications

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.