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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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.