Along with more than 780 community foundations across the US, we are celebrating Community Foundation Week! Our work succeeds because people like you believe in building a strategic legacy that will impact future generations. We are so grateful to everyone who has contributed to our success, and we look forward to growing our work together!
We often get the question – so what does a community foundation do? Well, we’re glad you asked. Community foundations are independent, public entities that steward charitable dollars from institutional and individual donors to local nonprofits. Since 1976, Arkansas Community Foundation has provided more than $156 million in grants and partnered with thousands of Arkansans to help them improve our neighborhoods, our towns and our entire state.
You also may find it surprising that community foundations represent one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy. Every state in the United States is home to at least one community foundation—large and small, urban and rural—working to advance solutions on a wide range of social issues.
Community foundations routinely work with families, individuals, attorneys and estate and financial planners to design gift plans that fit every economic situation, ensuring that donors receive the most benefit from their charitable contributions and that their philanthropic dollars are put to good use. Nearly every type of gift – real estate, closely held stock, artwork and insurance – can be contributed to a community foundation.
In 2012, according to the Foundation Center, community foundations received an estimated $7.5 billion in gifts, gave $5 billion in grants, and held total assets of $65 billion. The Foundation Center also reports that even though community foundations represent just 1% of the more than 82,000 foundations in the United States, their gifts represented 9% of total giving.
For the past 25 years, Community Foundation Week has raised awareness about the increasingly important role of community foundations in fostering local collaboration and innovation to address persistent civic and economic challenges.