Community Foundation Resource Collection (Archived)

Special collection

This collection, formerly the CF Insights Knowledge Center, was actively curated from 2015 until 2023 when Candid transferred CF Insights to the Council on Foundations. The resources continue to be accessible, but this collection is no longer actively curated.

Looking for new and updated CF Insights resources? Please visit cof.org/cfinsights.


Archived date: August 30, 2023

Collection title: CF Insights Knowledge Center (former); Community Foundation Resource Collection (current)

Collection URL: https://cfinsights.issuelab.org

Availability: 2015-2023 (Candid)

Title Count: 552 Titles

Description: This collection asks a very simple but important question: "What if each community foundation could know what all community foundations collectively know?" This collection features research produced and funded by community foundations, and other resources relevant to the field.

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Greater Milwaukee Foundation 10 Year Impact Report: A Decade of Distinction

October 1, 2019

From 2008-2017, Metro Milwaukee has benefited from rising opportunities, inspired by the vision that the community and Greater Milwaukee Foundation share for a thriving and equitable region. Milwaukee saw significant progress in education, youth development, neighborhood economic development and other areas, continuing a century-long commitment by the Foundation to strengthen the region through philanthropy. Data and stories reflecting the investment and impact of this 10-year period illustrate the shared success that is achieved through partnership among donors, community stakeholders, and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

Voices from the Tables

December 14, 2017

The report summarizes the outcomes of On the Table MKE, an initiative led by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation that provides a unique opportunity for civil conversation among people interested in building new relationships, generatingideas and igniting action for the benefit of the community and its future.In its pilot year, thousands of people across the four county, metro Milwaukee region gathered in small groups on Oct. 17, 2017, to share a meal and discuss topics that matter as well as corresponding action – both individual and collective – that can improve quality of life in the community.Three themes emerged as the most salient within these discussions: connecting and collaborating, education, and race, equity, and inclusion.

Latino Milwaukee: A Statistical Portrait

April 21, 2016

A new study commissioned by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation offers an unprecedented look at conditions in the Latino community and the trends that continue to shape our region. The Latino community in greater Milwaukee has unique strengths and challenges characterized by a growing population, an expanding workforce, income disparity, concentrated poverty and many other factors."The dynamics of our region are always changing, and as a community foundation, we are in a strong position to observe these transformations and contribute valuable knowledge to public dialogue," said Ellen Gilligan, President and CEO of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. "As the area's Latino community grows, it is important that leaders in government, business, nonprofits and neighborhoods all have accurate data to inform their decisions, which is why the Foundation commissioned this comprehensive report."Latino Milwaukee: A Statistical Portrait was developed for the Foundation by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development. The study provides comprehensive data examining how Latino Milwaukee has changed through the years, how the Latino community compares to other groups in metro Milwaukee, and how conditions for Latinos in this region compare to those in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States.Latino Milwaukee: A Statistical Portrait examines indicators pertaining to demographics; income, poverty, housing and social assistance; employment and earnings; business ownership; health and health care; education and schooling; incarceration; and politics.

Case Studies: How Four Community Information Projects Went from Idea to Impact

February 1, 2013

Making positive change happen in communities requires the free flow of quality information. We need it to achieve the results we want in education, public safety, environmental protection, youth development -- and just about any other issue that we care about. If the news and information environment is in trouble, so is civic life. Community and place-based foundations across the country are recognizing that, in an increasingly digital world, credible news and information are among the most powerful tools they have to spark community change. Over the five years of the Knight Community Information Challenge (KCIC), more than 80 foundations have invested in various media projects -- strengthening local and state reporting, encouraging citizen dialogue and supporting digital literacy skills -- to advance their goals for a better community.This report offers four case studies on how different foundations used information to improve the healthy functioning of their communities. The cases highlight the following: Why did each foundation support local media? How did it connect to their strategic priorities? What steps did they take to make their project successful? And what impact has it had on the issues they care about? Sharing these cases we hope provides valuable lessons for other foundations considering supporting local news and information efforts and broadening their commitment to using media and technology to engage residents.

Moving the Goal Posts: The Shift from Child Care Supply to Child Care Quality

December 1, 2010

Our latest report on early childhood education finds the original goals of 90s-era welfare reform produced state child care policies that had detrimental impacts on child care quality in Wisconsin and that may be difficult to reverse under the state's new quality ratings system.We find that as the child care subsidy system became operational, certain policy decisions produced results -- many of which were unintended -- that ended up boosting child care costs for the state while reducing child care quality. Those include: Creating a new, less regulated category of care provider, which was intended to allow parents broader choices in providers, quickly create jobs, and keep child care costs low for parents and the state.Sharing costs with parents by basing co-payments on the cost of care, as opposed to the parents' income, which would have allowed parents to opt for more costly care only if they wished to pay more out of pocket but which, ultimately, could not be implemented.Creating a more restrictive definition of "low-income," in order to serve the working poor in general, and not just those obtaining or seeking jobs as part of the W-2 program.Tying subsidy rates to prices in the private market, which was intended to provide low-income parents with access to the entire market while also relying on competition to keep the state's costs in check. Each of these four policies helped the state achieve its primary goal of providing a sufficient child care supply that would allow low-income parents to move from welfare to work, but at a high cost to the state and at the expense of quality within the child care market.

School District Governance Reform: The Devil Is in the Details

February 16, 2009

Provides an overview of alternative approaches to governance in urban school districts, including integrated governance, district dissolution, and state receivership. Outlines the benefits, limitations, and implications of mayoral control over districts.

Driven to Spend: Pumping Dollars Out of Our Households and Communities

June 1, 2005

This report examines the impacts of transportation spending on households in the 28 metro areas for which the federal government collects expenditure data and of rising gas prices on both households and regional economies. It finds that households in regions that have invested in public transportation reap financial benefits from having access to affordable mobility options, even as gas prices rise, and that regions with public transit are losing less per household from the increase in gas prices than those without transit options.