The Central New York Community Foundation is investing $2 million to help address a significant problem in its community — the prevalence of lead paint in homes in Syracuse.

More than 11 percent of Syracuse children tested in 2017 were shown to have elevated blood lead levels — an alarming figure that impacts not only their health, but also their ability to learn and develop.

Nonprofits need more than money to be successful. They also need knowledge and support.

That’s why many community foundations actively invest in programs that help nonprofits build their capacity. Rather than simply writing grants to support individual programs, these foundations instead actively work to help nonprofits become more self sufficient and productive.

As we mark Community Foundation Week, now is a great time to reflect on how community foundations are playing a leading role in bringing people together and bridging divides — and to encourage donors and other partners to think about how they can engage community foundations to serve as a bigger catalyst for change.

The Seattle Foundation is launching a new Climate Justice Impact Strategy to support the communities most impacted by climate change.

In this first-of-its-kind strategy among community foundations, the foundation is putting justice and equity at the center of its approach to climate change.

Seattle Foundation President and CEO Tony Mestres explains the foundation’s strategy for investing in community-based research, building strong, diverse coalitions, and strengthening the capacity of nonprofits working to advance local solutions to this global challenge.

Like most community foundations, The Miami Foundation exists to do much more than help donors give money to their favorite causes.

It also aims to do something much more profound: to identify important community problems and play a leading role in engaging its residents to address these problems.

Rob Collier, the retiring president of the Council of Michigan Foundations, says the rapid growth of donor-advised funds is helping to get more money into communities — and cautions against creating new rules that would curtail giving.

For community foundations, donor-advised funds are all about impact, writes Dan Baldwin, president of the Community Foundation for Monterey County.

Fifty years after he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., Martin Luther King Jr.’s presence remains strong in this Southern city.

A special series of grants by the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis aims to make sure Dr. King’s vision continues to positively shape his former hometown for years to come.

Community foundations often get headlines for their work leading large-scale efforts that aim to tackle major problems in their communities.

But what’s often overlooked is the work community foundations do to connect smaller nonprofits with new donors — and the steps these foundations take to help community-based nonprofits to build their capacity and donor pipeline.

One way community foundations do this is through their coordination of giving days. Giving days are organized, community-wide events in which donors are asked to pledge money or time to charities. In many communities across the country, community foundations take the leading role in staging these events — providing everything from a centralized website that collects donations, to the marketing and publicity, to enlisting corporate sponsors and donors who provide matching gifts.

After Richard Lavine lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, family members created funds at Communities Foundation of Texas to support research. Today, their donor-advised funds are helping researchers at Baylor University test a promising new drug combination that might help save future lives.