What is a Community Foundation?

Throughout the world, an emerging philanthropic model has been in the spotlight for the last two decades: the community foundation. This unique foundation model furthers local development through community leadership and resource mobilization to alleviate the community’s most critical needs. Philanthropic organizations incorporated as community foundations are an innovative social and institutional interaction model that brings together diverse actors in one community.

We are referring to private, non-profit grant-making foundations, independent and autonomous, dedicated at identifying needs and resources in a specific community in order to elevate the quality of life of its residents through the creation of philanthropic funds – monetary or in-kind – preferably in perpetuity

A community foundation promotes solidarity, supplementarity and civic co-responsibility in the solution of local social problems, to foster the involvement of donors or social investors through their donations. The community foundation offers donors information, follow-up and evaluation of their social investment, channeling funds for local development in a professional and efficient manner. It also serves as a vehicle to bring together actors, sectors and initiatives, resulting in synergies that benefit the community. Among international groups there is a clear consensus to define common characteristics for community foundations all over the world, grouping them in three distinct areas:

Characteristics of the Community Foundation:

The community foundation has a deep understanding of the challenges and needs of the community it serves, as well as the groups and individuals who integrate it:

1. Local expertise:

It is a local organization, its board and staff, are community members.
Knows about community needs, opportunities and resources.
Monitors all areas of community need.
Gathers information and follows-up on the development of local agencies and social programs.
Attracts and mobilizes private resources to the areas and causes that need them most in order to achieve a shared vision for community development.

2. Community Leadership:

The Community Foundation plays a key role in responding to present and future community needs.

Serves as a community catalyst.
Builds endowment funds to guarantee availability of resources that will benefit the community forever.
Supports high impact projects.
It is governed by recognized community leaders with deep roots in the community.
Promotes the development of new organizations and programs.
Redirects its resources to keep up with the community’s changing needs.

3. Personalized Services:

The Community Foundation helps individuals, families, companies, agencies and organizations reach their philanthropic and financial goals by providing them with tools and resources to make high-impact donations, while making the process easy, flexible and effective.

Shares the meaning of giving with others by providing them information about the available donation vehicles.
Designs donation mechanisms according to what matters most to each donor as well as their tax requirements, matching them to the community’s necessities and causes.
Facilitates complex donations.
Shares its knowledge of the community’s needs, providing necessary information.
Offers specialized knowledge for fund creation and administrative services.
Helps people leave personal bequests through the creation of donor-advised funds.
Offers support to donors, making suggestions about resource allocation as well as opportunities for close collaboration with their beneficiaries whether they are projects, organizations or population groups.
Offers donors the opportunity to make anonymous contributions.