Funds Management
Community foundations generally maintain a variety of fund types from donor advised funds to agency endowment funds to designated and field-of-interest funds. Community foundations and other charitable organizations may also have relationships with supporting organizations. Learn more about the particular characteristics, management and legal requirements of these giving options and find information to help determine the best structure for your donors.
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
What is an agency endowment?
What types of organization can establish an agency endowment at a community foundation?
When a public charity establishes an agency endowment at a community foundation, which organization owns the contributed funds?
Since the agency is releasing legal…
The Grantmaker Salary and Benefits (GSB) Board Compensation Tables provide foundation boards and staff with the tools they need to benchmark their board compensation policies and practices against peers in the field. Released every two years and containing data collected through the Council’s…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Download this guide as a PDF
Nonprofit entities place their investments with community foundations (the Foundation) for a variety of reasons, including investment expertise, efficiencies, and access to planned giving advice, and services. As nonprofit entities seek to place their assets and…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Download this guide as a PDF
Nonprofit entities place their investments with community foundations ("the Foundation") for a variety of reasons, including investment expertise, efficiencies, and access to planned giving advice and services. As nonprofit entities seek to place their assets and…
The Grantmaker Salary and Benefits (GSB) Administrative and Program Expense Tables provide your foundation the data you need to benchmark your organization's administrative, program, service, and qualifying distribution expenses against peers in the field. Released every two years and containing…
Publication
The public health and economic crises of 2020 have affected millions of Americans and laid bare the glaring inequities in our systems and institutions.
A new report from Council on Foundations, Philanthropy California, and Dalberg Advisors outlines how the US philanthropic sector is…
Publication
This Strategy Guide, developed in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy, invites you to reflect more deeply on how your foundation chooses to balance the four factors of Purpose, Conditions and Trends, Time Horizon, and Assets for Mission, especially in times of greater…
Publication
After a request by a CF Insights member seeking information about the operation of Women's Funds at community foundation, a survey was created and administered to a subset of potential respondents. This short, eight-question survey collected some high-level information about fees pricing, revenue…
Fundamentals
Community foundations have one thing in common: When it comes to administrative fee structures, no two are alike. While there's no one right answer, it's important to review and compare your foundation’s fee structure to other foundations of comparable size. Many community foundations are doing…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Note
The information below was originally developed by the Finance, Administration & Operations Group (FAOG) Accounting Practices Committee and was last updated Aug. 19, 2010. It was updated in 2025 by the FAOG Accounting Practices Committee, in collaboration with Baker Tilly US, LLP, and was…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Historical background of non-component and donor-directed funds.
Legal Compliance Guidance
Imagine the following scenarios:
A donor advisor has not made a recommendation from a donor-advised fund for two years.
An agency has requested that your community foundation not make a distribution from an agency endowment until the agency requests a distribution at some point in the future.…
Legal Compliance Guidance
This document outlines the basics of component funds, field of interest funds, donor-advised funds, and restrictions around these funds.