Community Foundations 101

What is a Community Foundation?

• We connect people to the causes they care about.
  We engage and mobilize donors as participants and leaders in community problem solving, helping donors to share not just their money, but also their knowledge, expertise, and networks.

• We support nonprofits through grants and training.
  We will offer competitive grant opportunities using unrestricted or field-of-interest funds, in addition to managing donor advised funds. We help amplify marketing and advocacy of the sector as a whole, and can provide investment services for endowment funds. 

• We enhance community capacity.
  We act as valuable partners that drive positive change. We grow and link local leadership, maximize access to public and private resources, and advocate and partner for solutions.

• We help build useful knowledge.
  We have both first hand contact with community issues and access to information, ideas, and approaches outside our region. We can spot trends, surface issues, provide analysis, and serve as hubs for community information.