Community Foundation Global Status Report - 2005 Executive Summary

The year 2004 proved to be a watershed year for the global community foundation movement. In the 25 to 30 years since community foundations first appeared outside of North America, the number of community foundations around the world had grown and matured to the point where it made sense, for the first time, to bring community foundation practitioners together for a global meeting. Community foundations: Symposium on a global movement was held in Berlin, Germany, in December 2004. At the meeting it quickly became apparent to all involved that community foundations had progressed from being participants in global civil society to being among the creators of global civil society.

The pioneering efforts of the community foundation movement in the United Kingdom to adapt a North American model to its own unique circumstances and traditions had borne fruit. Although the adaptability and flexibility of the model was well known in North America, the UK experience proved that the community foundation model could take hold and be successful in a country where giving patterns and traditions, and the role of the state in supporting the social and economic needs of its people, were vastly different.

Today community foundations are found on every inhabited continent. There are community foundations in most parts of the developed world, and in many developing countries and regions around the globe. The modern community foundation, which was born out of a particular tradition of philanthropy in North America in the early twentieth century, has been adapted successfully to local cultures, socio-economic circumstances and giving traditions in countries around the world.

Research on global community foundation formation first began in 1999, thanks to a joint initiative of the International Programs department of the Council on Foundations and Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support-Community Foundations (WINGS-CF), and led to the first report on The growth of community foundations around the world, published in 2000. The 2005 Community Foundation Global Status Report is the fourth in a series of what in future will be annual or biennial reports on the status of global community foundation developments.

The research results outlined here have come from a survey conducted by WINGS-CF, whose Secretariat is based at the European Foundation Centre (EFC), and by the EFC’s Community Philanthropy Initiative (CPI).

This report confirms that community foundations are one of the fastest growing forms of philanthropy worldwide and that community foundations are increasingly becoming players in global civil society. For the first time the Global Status Report includes stories demonstrating the variations in successful community foundation models and the impacts they have in their local communities and around the world.

What is a community foundation? Community foundations are grantmaking organizations that:

• seek to improve the quality of life for all people in a defined geographic area;
• are independent from control or influence by other organizations, governments or donors;
• are governed by a board of citizens broadly reflective of the communities they serve;
• make grants to other nonprofit groups to address a wide variety of emerging and changing needs in the community;
• seek to build a permanent resource for the community, most often through the creation of endowed funds from a wide range of donors, including local citizens, corporations, governments, and other foundations and nonprofits;
• provide services to donors to help them achieve their philanthropic goals;
• engage in a broad range of community leadership and partnership activities, serving as catalysts, convenors, collaborators and facilitators to solve problems and develop solutions to important community issues;
• have open and transparent policies and practices concerning all aspects of their operations; and
• are accountable to the community by informing the general public about their purposes, activities, and financial status on a regular basis.

Highlights of global community foundation developments in 2004

• 1,175 community foundations have been identified in 46 countries.
• The number of community foundations has grown by 5% in one year; the number of countries has increased by 9%.
• 40% of community foundations globally exist outside the US, up from 37.5% last year and 34% in the prior year.
• The number of community foundations in the UK and Canada represents only 42% of the community foundations formed outside the US, down from 47.5% last year and 52% the year before.
• The number of community foundations outside the UK, Canada and the US is 274, which represents a one-year growth rate of 24%.
• Countries in Africa and Thailand in Southeast Asia especially are showing a lot of new activity around community foundation formation.

Not only are community foundations located in all parts of the world, they have become a global movement that is increasingly interconnected and helping to spread the concept into newer and under-served parts of the world.

 

Click here to read the 2005 Community Foundation Global Status Report