CF Insights 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. Contact us at cfinsights@candid.org and visit us at cfinsights.candid.org.

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Community Leadership Assessment Tool

June 30, 2021

The Community Leadership Assessment Tool is an instrument whose development was informed by conversations among community foundations who desired a structured mechanism to assess their community leadership activities and communicate the impact of their work beyond financial metrics. At the foundation-level, this tool is designed to inform practice. At the field level, results from this tool will be aggregated to provide a broader perspective on how foundations are engaging in community leadership efforts.Updated June 2021: Now includes a crosswalk with CFLeads' Framework for Community Leadership. More details about this crosswalk can be found in the Guidance section of the document, and throughout the Community Leadership Assessment Tool.Take the assessment online at candid.org/howwelead.

Wellness and Recovery Fund Insights Report

March 23, 2022

Brooklyn Community Foundation established the Wellness and Recovery Fund from charitable assets that remained after the New York State Office of the Attorney General dissolved Canarsie A.W.A.R.E., Inc. for its participation in a scheme that exploited some of New York's most vulnerable residents and defrauded Medicaid. The Fund supports organizations working to ensure that those who navigate the difficult road of substance abuse and addiction do so with reliable support that honors their agency and dignity.In November 2021, Brooklyn Community Foundation conducted its Insights community engagement process to learn from and partner with community leaders and residents to design the Wellness and Recovery Fund's strategy. The process involved co-creating a space for radical listening—acknowledging that people are the experts of their own experience—and fostered an environment of curiosity, openness, and empathy. 

Analysis of Donor Advised Funds from a Community Foundation Perspective

June 21, 2021

The Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) commissioned four studies between 2000 and 2016 to evaluate the required private foundation payout rate as well as hypothetical model portfolios and actual investment returns.In December 2020, the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy (Johnson Center) at Grand Valley State University, in collaboration with Plante Moran Financial Advisors (PMFA), updated and expanded this research by using a comprehensive database of IRS Form 990-PF (private foundation) returns, adding international investments to the model portfolios, presenting actual payout rates of all private foundations in the dataset, and showing projections of how changes to the payout rate may affect future foundation assets. In March 2021, staff from the Johnson Center turned their focus to community foundations and completed a similar analysis — the first of its kind in the CMF foundation study series.Similar to its earlier private and community foundation report counterparts, this report provides new information to the field. To study donor advised funds (DAFs), the project team leveraged the Johnson Center's comprehensive database of IRS Form 990 filings for summary statistics. The team supplemented that dataset by partnering with CMF to obtain account-level information about the more than 2,600 DAFs housed at Michigan's community foundations. That account-level detail was used to calculate individual DAF investment returns, contribution and distribution flows, and payout rates for the years 2017–2020.

Producing, Protecting and Preserving Housing Affordability in Central Texas: Philanthropic Opportunities

May 1, 2021

Having a place to call home is essential not only for the wellbeing of individual families and community members, but also to ensure Central Texas' continued economic growth and success. The effectiveness of Austin's response to its housing affordability crisis will determine its future — and there is still time to prevent it from experiencing the woes of other regions and provide the platform for vibrant, diverse, and economically healthy communities. In recognition of this, the Austin Community Foundation commissioned this report with funding from JPMorgan Chase, National Instruments, and St. David's Foundation to increase funders' understanding of housingrelated issues and present ideas for consideration.

NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund Report: Resilience & Resolve

January 7, 2021

The NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund was created to aid nonprofit service providers struggling with the initial health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. It raised more than $110 million from more than 1,300 donations and gave financial assistance to NYC-based organizations through 764 grants and 45 loans. It distributed more than $73 million in grants through The Trust and more than $37 million in no-interest loans through the Nonprofit Finance Fund.This report provides a closer look at the fund's grant program, the nonprofits it supported, and the road ahead.

Our Commitment to Anti-Racism: Beyond Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: An introduction to CFC's commitment to supporting and progressing anti-racism

January 1, 2021

As an organization, CFC's purpose is "Relentlessly pursuing a future where everyone belongs." Without anti-racism, and confronting the inherent inequalities and discrimination in our society, it is not possible to create the true space of belonging that is needed and necessary for a just and equitable future.CFC has been a historically white-led organization. While this remains the case, ongoing programming has worked to engage and include input from Black, Indigenous and people of colour, on intersectionality and intersectional feminism, Indigenous resilience, and equity principles in emergency grantmaking. These have been starting points that have helped us further reflect on systemic racism in Canada, however we know we need to do more, and we need to help local community foundations do the same. During recent years, the organization has been privileged to grow and be able to support additional staff members, including Black, Indigenous and people of colour staff and board members who were welcomed to the team full-time, but the organization acknowledges that up until recent years, there has been limited Black, Indigenous or people of colour representation on our staff, board and in our program design.Given that we are still at the start of an anti-racism journey, we did not feel it was appropriate to share or market this package as a guidebook. Until we do more of our own inner work to address inherent systems of racism and white supremacy in our systems, we are not in a position to designate ourselves as leaders in this space.This invitation is not meant to be an exclusive guide, toolkit, or one-stop-shop for anti-racism materials for community foundations. Rather, this is a space to begin a conversation on the community foundation movement's shortcomings, and to take pause to reflect on where we need to go.

State of the Community Foundation Field in Europe 2020

January 1, 2021

Building an understanding of the shape and work of the community foundation field is important not only in raising awareness of its scale and scope, for those operating within it and those with an interest in local development, but also to inform further development of the field.In an exceptional year for all societies worldwide, ECFI has conducted its biennial assessment of the community foundation (CF) field in Europe. This report has been informed by a survey of community foundations support organisations (CFSOs) and intelligence gathered through our ongoing engagement with the field.This report provides a snapshot of the field, highlights changes and trends, and identifies some key issues relevant to its further development. There are reflections on the role that community foundations played in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but also on how this impacted on the community foundations themselves, and how this has altered their thinking and strategies.The analysis of community foundations support organisations (CFSOs) differentiates them by type and shows how this essential part of the field has developed. The work of community foundations support organisations is described and there is a focus on two important areas – what they did differently following the outbreak of Covid-19, and how they are supporting the field in respect of embracing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Conclusions are drawn from the analysis of the field which will inform ECFI's work which aims to strengthen and promote the community foundation movement in Europe.

Moving Toward Equitable Funding Practices: Findings from Research on Community Foundation Practices

November 1, 2020

Community foundations can play a powerful role in connecting high-net-worth donors with local organizations working to advance community needs—especially organizations led by people of color. Connecting donors to organizations that are providing leadership and meeting critical needs in the community is one way community foundations can help donors ensure their giving is having local impact and can help strengthen the value proposition for donors to work with community foundations. Recognizing that many community foundations are already playing this role, we wanted to learn more about how they are doing so.We interviewed staff members from 13 community foundations, representing a range of geographies and asset sizes. We prioritized reaching out to community foundations who already had a point of view on racial equity because we thought other community foundations might be able to learn from their practices to connect donors and nonprofits. The staff members we spoke to primarily led donor services for their foundation, and we spoke to a few CEOs as well. In addition, we reached out to four philanthropic intermediary organizations that are structured differently from community foundations and have an emphasis on funding social justice organizations, grassroots organizations, and/or organizations led by people of color. These interviews yielded insight into how community foundations might think differently about their role and practices they could consider to deepen engagement with communities and donors.This report distills highlights and themes from our interviews with community foundations and other funding intermediaries. The findings are organized around three big questions:WHY Does This Matter? Forming a point of view on racial equityHOW Do We Direct Resources to Meet Critical Community Needs? Ways communityfoundations are connecting donors and nonprofitsWHAT Difference Are We Making? Evolving thinking about assessing impact

How the Sustainable Development Goals Can Help Community Foundations Respond to COVID-19 and Advance Racial Equity

October 28, 2020

In 2020, the Mott Foundation commissioned philanthropic researcher, Dr. Larry McGill, to examine how U.S. community foundations can use the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to lead local revitalization efforts, advance racial equity and recover from the complex effects of the pandemic. The subsequent report aims to help community foundations unpack the SDG framework and use it to create an organized approach to their work toward systemic change.

2019 Columbus Survey Results

October 1, 2020

The data, findings, and rankings throughout this dashboard are based on FY 2017 Columbus Survey responses from 238 community foundations.

The Case for Investing in King County’s Black-Led Organizations

August 17, 2020

Black residents in King County have faced immeasurable layers of harm, due to systemic racism, redlining, underemployment, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the implementation of systematic barriers, which have prevented Blacks from accessing traditional pathways to wealth and economic security in the region. In alignment with its commitment to advancing racial equity and in support of Black residents, Seattle Foundation invested in learning how to better support the work of Black-led organizations (BLOs) through a partnership with Byrd Barr Place and Cardea. The project team worked to explore the strengths, challenges, and opportunities for alignment across BLOs.The intent of this report is to enhance funders' understanding of local BLOs, so they can provide tailored philanthropic support that meets the needs of BLOs and so BLOs in the King County region can better understand each other's work.

The Sustainable Development Goals and Your Community Foundation - Guidebook and Toolkit

August 6, 2020

This Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Guidebook and Toolkit is meant for staff and board members of community foundations at all stages of engaging with the SDGs.The Guidebook and Toolkit is intended to meet community foundations where they are at, to provide practical examples, ideas and steps for aligning current community foundation work with the SDGs, and to provide next steps to deepen their impact through the SDGs. This document is divided into two sections. The first section is an SDG Guidebook. It will introduce the SDGs and provide global, national and local context for the Goals. It will explain why Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) and community foundations are well positioned to align with the SDGs and how the SDGs can deepen collective impact.The Guidebook includes:* An overview of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs* How the global community came together to adopt the SDGs* Key concepts that underlie the SDG Framework and relevance to the work of community foundations* What CFC is doing to advance the SDGsThe second section of this document identifies practical approaches to align current work to the SDGs through an SDG Toolkit. In many cases, community foundations in Canada are already doing work towards meeting the SDGs, and the Toolkit is designed to show how to align current work with the SDG Framework.