Location, location, location: your Community Foundation focuses on where you live
Might you be missing an important source of grant funds, advice and technical assistance right in your own backyard? Local Funding Partnerships projects usually receive their local matching dollars from a mix of different types of grantmakers. Have you included your community foundation? Your project might be considered for a grant by virtue of your location.
"The words 'community foundation' may not be in the title," advises Curtis Holloman, LFP deputy director, "but more than 700 charitable organizations around the U.S. confine their grantmaking to a geographically defined area—whether it’s a single town such as Brookline, MA, several counties encompassing a metropolitan area such as Kansas City, or the entire state of Maine."
“Community foundations vary greatly in the size of their assets and the types of projects they will fund, but all are responsive to community needs and sensitive to donors’ opinions,” explains Ada Mary Gugenheim, senior program officer in health at The Chicago Community Trust.
“It is important to understand,” she continues, “that location is only one of many criteria that restrict grantmaking at community foundations.” Increasingly individual donors create funds within a foundation that are dedicated to a particular cause, and the donors remain involved in the decision-making. (See Types of Funds)
“Our role is more than to provide dollars. We see ourselves as partners with our funders and grantees,” notes Kate Nielsen, president of The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. “An important part of our work is learning what the community wants, exploring innovative ways to address the root cause of problems and sharing that knowledge.
“By convening coalitions of funders and nonprofits, we leverage our giving to make our community better,” adds Nielsen. Donors also appreciate the opportunity to bring national dollars into the community.
(See Leveraging Dollars)
“We actively sought a project that would be competitive in the Local Initiative Funding Partners program,” recalls Annie Koppel Van Hanken, senior program officer at the Tulsa Community Foundation. Some community foundations may initiate a project while others primarily respond to applications. (See Different Criteria)
“We worked closely with the nonprofit leaders who collaborated to organize Paseo de Salud (Path to Health) and we kept our kept donors informed,” says Koppel Van Hanken. “When the project was ready, we brought many local funders to the table with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.”
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