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Community Foundations

Membership Benefits

In This Section

Our Community Foundation Services (CFS) is devoted exclusively to helping you develop and strengthen your philanthropy. As you work toward your altruistic goals, count on us if you need help with:

Technical Assistance

Looking for answers to tough questions? Contact our CFS team. We’ll address your specific needs on such topics as strategic planning, administrative fees, donor advised funds, and affiliate funds.

National Standards for U. S. Community Foundations

The National Standards promote excellence in six key areas:

Mission, Structure, and Governance
Resource Development
Stewardship and Accountability
Grantmaking and Community Leadership
Donor Relations
Communications

For more information visit www.cfstandards.org which is an essential tool for understanding and meeting compliance with National Standards. The site is a robust and searchable library of sample documents, resources and tools to help community foundations meet National Standards.

Professional Development and Networking Opportunities

We offer a number of ways for you to gain the knowledge you need to advance your career and to network with your philanthropic colleagues.

Center for Community Foundation Excellence training courses

Community Foundation Fundamentals
Financial Administration for Community Foundations
Resource Development for Community Foundations
Community Leadership for Community Foundations

30-minute Mentor Program—a peer-to-peer learning resource that encourages you to network and share your expertise in areas such as leadership, organizational identity, community issues, legislative work, donor and board engagement, and operations.

Annual Fall Conference for Community Foundations

Annual Community Foundation CEO Network Retreat

Webinars, Seminars, and Courses

foundation governance, finance, and management
CEO and trustee performance and responsibilities
public policy and government relations
foundations and the law
grantmaking trends and outlooks
promising practices in grantmaking

Resources

Consider us your portal to a wide variety of resources addressing your specific needs.

Online discussion groups for

chief executives
program staff
development/donor services staff
finance and administration staff
human resources staff
communications/marketing staff
technology and information systems staff
board members
community foundation affiliates
organizations that provide support services to community foundations
staff who manage scholarship programs

Websites and Knowledge Sharing Opportunities

CFTech.org—contains information about technology resources for community foundations
CFMarketplace.org—offers access to over 250 marketing ideas, resources, and tools including customizable marketing materials
CFLocate.org—provides location of community foundations and affiliates worldwide

Leadership

The Community Foundations Leadership Team (CFLT), elected by you and your colleagues, sets the direction and program goals for the community foundation field nationally.

Action Teams and Standing Committees represent over 100 volunteers that the CFLT uses to realize its plan of action

Field Engagement Action Team
Legal and Regulatory Standing Committee
Standards Action Team
Technology Action Team

Implementation partners are organizations the CFLT works with to support its plan of action. These include:

CFLeads—focuses on expanding the understanding, knowledge and practice of community leadership by community foundations
CF Insights—provides reliable benchmarking data to align community foundation operating models and cost structures with their missions
Community Foundation Service Corporation—helps community foundations work with financial institutions, most notably Merrill Lynch

Publications

What You Need to Know—a series of short e-papers on issues of interest to community foundation staff and board members.
Thought > Action > Impact —a bi-monthly journal that gives voice to some of the most influential leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors
Philanthropy in the News, RE: Philanthropy, Policy Update and Washington Quarterly—e-newsletters that keep members informed about news, events, and legislation that affect philanthropy

Legal Information

One of your greatest benefits as a Council member is direct access to the our top-notch legal team. They offer information and analysis on a wide range of tax and regulatory matters affecting philanthropy, including:

changes in IRS regulations and practices (i.e., the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act)
donor advised funds
nonprofit organizational endowments
supporting organizations
charitable gift planning,
and day-to-day operational issues.

Books

The Council publishes books to assist community foundations in all aspects of philanthropic operations. Visit www.cof.org/publications for a complete list. Popular titles include: