As we celebrate National Community Foundation Week, learn more about Community Foundations in the US and across the world:

What is a Community Foundation?

A community foundation can be defined simply as a grantmaking public charity dedicated to improving the lives of people in a defined local geographic. Increasingly, however, larger community foundations are funding global initiatives, in addition to programs in their geographic region.

 

Facts about Community Foundations
·      The first community foundation was created in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio, and operates now as the Cleveland Foundation.

·      Every continent but Antarctica has a community foundation, and it is estimated that there are at least 1,000 community foundations outside of the United States and Canada.

·      As of 2015, there were 795 community foundations in the United States. Indiana has the highest number of any state, with 76 community foundations.

·      Total giving by community foundations in 2015 was nearly $7 billion. Community foundations in California gave the most, with total giving by community foundations in the state totaling nearly 1.5 billion dollars.

·      Nearly every type of gift, from cash to real estate to bitcoin to stock, can be donated to a community foundation.