All research on this page is prepared by the Community Foundation Research and Training Institute. We welcome your comments. Also, if you have an idea for a future research topic you would like us to pursue, please let us know.

Report on Gift Processing at Community Foundations

We sent a small gift to 100 randomly-selected community foundations. Our goal was to measure the speed and accuracy of gift processing.

What we found may surprise you.

To read the report, click here.

New Report Measures Community Foundation Awareness, Understanding and Trust

The Lilly School of Philanthropy in Indianapolis has released a wonderful new report entitled “What Americans Think About Philanthropy and Nonprofits”. The report contains a mountain of data related to charitable giving, and buried in the report is a nugget about the extent of awareness, understanding and trust of community foundations in the United States.

For community foundations to attract donors and grow, three things must be true. Potential donors should be aware of community foundations, should understand them, and should trust them. It looks like community foundations are winning the battle for awareness and understanding; as far as trust goes, the news is not so good.

In a random sample of more than 1,300 adults ages 18 and over, nearly one-third (32%) said they were familiar with community foundations. Another 50% said they had heard of a community foundation, but were not familiar with what they do. Only 18% said they didn’t know anything about a community foundation.

While this information can be interpreted in several ways, in my opinion it’s good news for the community foundation field. While we like to say that community foundations are “the best kept secret” in philanthropy, if this information is applied across the nation nearly one-third of the adult population is familiar with community foundations. The field still has more work to do to raise awareness and understanding, but this data shows that community foundations are well-known and understood.

The news is not as good when it comes to trust. Respondents were asked “How much do you trust the following charitable entities to generally do what is right?” Only 30% said they trust community foundations “completely” or “very much”. That number places community foundations ahead of every other charitable entity other than churches. On the other hand, however, it shows that the field has a lot of work to do to gain the trust of potential donors.

To read the full report, click here.

This research was added by David Bennett on May 16, 2023.

Community Foundation Census Shows Strong Growth for Field

The most recent community foundation census has been completed, and the results indicated that growth in community foundation assets has continued to be strong.

Our report includes data for 833 community foundations in the United States. We estimate that total community foundation assets reached $143.9 billion in 2021, up 13% from $127.4 billion in 2020 and soaring 58% from the $91.2 billion in assets recorded by the field in 2016.

The community foundation census has been completed by the Community Foundation Research and Training Institue each year since 2016. To read our full report, click here.

Our census uses actual asset levels for each community foundation for the years 2016-2019. Data for the field for 2020 and 2021 were estimated based on random samples. For an excel spreadsheet of all 833 community foundations and their asset levels 2016-2019, click here.

King-Grassley Donor Advised Fund Legislation Could Bring Major Changes

We’ve completed our analysis of the new legislation introduced by Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Charles Grassley (R-IA). If approved, the new law (referred to as the Accelerating Charitable Efforts, or ACE, Act) could be the most significant changes to donor advised funds since they were created 80 years ago.

Keep in mind that this legislation has only been introduced — it’s a long way from passage. In addition, any new laws passed could look signficiantly different from this proposed legislation.

Also — new laws can often be complicated. We have done our best to analyze the legislation, but mistakes can and do occur. If you see anything in this analysis that you feel is inaccurate, let us know and we will make a correction.

To read our analysis, click here.

To read the proposed legislation, click here.

Looking Ahead: Potential Tax Changes in 2021 and Their Effect on Community Foundations

In this report, we take a look at some of the potential tax changes that have been proposed by President Biden, and how those changes will effect gifts to community foundations — and to all charities.

To read the report, click here.

This report was prepared by David Bennett in January 2021.

2018 Community Foundation Census Released

We’ve completed the census of community foundation assets for 2018, and it shows that the field had modest growth from 2017 to 2018. Total assets at 847 community foundation grew to $105.4 billion, an increase of 1.3%.

At least three explanations can be found for the relatively weak growth. The first was a decline in the stock market; the second was the acceleration of donor gifts in 2017 to take advantage of changing tax laws. Finally, the overall numbers were impacted by an extraordinary $4.4 billion write-down in assets at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation at the end of 2017.

You can read the full report here.

Background Research for Crafting Mission, Vision and Values Statements

As part of a comprehensive strategic planning process, community foundations often re-examine their mission, vision and values statements. We’ve compiled some background research on these statements, including best practices, examples, and even a word cloud of the mission statements from the 100 largest community foundations.

You can read this report — Steering Your Course: Crafting a Mission, Vision and Values Statement for a Community Foundation — by clicking here.

This report was prepared by David Bennett on June 1, 2020.

Survey Results from Community Foundation Response to Coronavirus Pandemic

126 community foundations responded to our survey regarding responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the most important findings are as follows:

82% of community foundations have created a fund dedicated to providing grants to support organizations dealing with the pandemic. Of the remaining 18%, most are using a disaster relief fund that already existed, but has been repurposed to help local coronavirus efforts
98% of community foundations have made a grant to deal with the local response to the crisis. The most common type of fund that has provided a grant to deal with a pandemic is a donor advised fund, followed closely by unrestricted endowments, pandemic relief funds and field of interest funds.
96% of community foundations have closed their offices and are working remotely
84% of community foundation expect their next board meeting to take place as scheduled, but it will be conducted remotely, rather than through an in-person meeting
66% of community foundations have applied for support from the Paycheck Protection Program.

You can read the full report here.

This report was published by David Bennett on April 18, 2020.

Initial Data Shows Dip in Charitable Giving Under New Tax Legislation

Early data is in, and it confirms what the academic research had projected: Charitable giving weakened thanks to the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. We’ve taken a look at the data; you can read our research here.

This report was published by David Bennett on September 3, 2019.

Unrelated Business Income Taxes on Free Parking for Community Foundation Staff

Here’s our research on the provision of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 which could cause a charitable organization to pay taxes on free parking provided to employees. Much of this information is based on guidance recently issued by the Internal Revenue Service. To read the guidance memo from the IRS, click here. To read our summary of how this might effect your community foundation (and any nonprofit organization), click here.

Please note: We are aware that legislation has been introduced which may repeal some or all of these new provisions. You should check with your tax advisors before taking any action relative to these new provisions.

This report was published by David Bennett on November 13, 2018

Census of US-Based Community Foundations for 2016 Released

We have finally (whew!) released the Community Foundation Census for 2016. In it, we summarize three years of asset levels for all US-based community foundations.

How many community foundations are there in the United States? We think there are 866. The census provides aggregate three-year data on asset levels, gifts received, and grants disbursed. Data is sorted by asset levels, and also alphabetically.

Now that the database is complete, we expect to release more reports in the near future on growth rates of community foundations, observations on gifts received and grants disbursed, the prevalence of donor advised funds, and other reports we hope you will find useful.

To read the 2016 Community Foundation Census, click here.

Partnering with Donor Advised Funds

Community foundations have become experts at identifying important community needs, vetting the charitable organizations which effectively address those needs, and providing grants to those charities. Yet with rare exceptions, the financial support that a community foundation can provide will fall short of the amount needed to adequately address the problem.

At the same time, donor advised funds are often the fastest-growing asset category in most community foundations. Advisors to those funds often come to the foundation knowing the organizations they wish to support. Those donor advised grants may or may not coincide with the issues supported by the community foundation’s other funds.

If donor advisors can come alongside the unrestricted grantmaking of a community foundation, more resources can be applied to implement solutions. But how can a community foundation build these philanthropic partnerships? The question, then, is this: What can be done to more closely align grants from donor advised funds with the community needs identified in a community foundation’s unrestricted grantmaking program?

This report was published by David Bennett in September, 2018.