News and opinion about community foundations and philanthropy
The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundations were founded in 1940 with a modest, $5,000 gift from a Jewish immigrant named Annie Paper.
This week, the Foundations reached a milestone that likely seemed impossible at the time — more than $1 billion in giving to communities across Minnesota.
Read MoreNew Yorkers have a lot to lose if its population is undercounted in the 2020 Census.
But a group of foundations led by the New York Community Trust is calling on the state to join them in funding an outreach effort targeted at helping ensure traditionally undercounted communities are fully counted.
Read MoreAs the partial shutdown of the federal government enters its second month, a growing number of U.S. community foundations are stepping up to provide funding and other support to impacted workers and nonprofits.
In Washington, D.C., the shutdown is affecting an estimated 285,000 federal government and contract workers. In turn, it is wreaking havoc on the region’s economy and putting a huge strain on nonprofits that provide help with food and shelter, utilities, and social services.
As the need has grown, the Greater Washington Community Foundation has started setting aside and raising money to help nonprofits address the most critical needs.
Read MoreA Pittsburgh Foundation leader reflects on the changing role of community foundations in an era of mass killings, bigotry, and hatred.
Raising money to bind the wounds is only the first step. What happens after that?
Read MoreWhy are donor-advised funds growing in popularity?
For many donors, the answer to that question centers not on tax benefits, but on convenience and flexibility.
“It’s sort of like being Santa Claus all year long,” Marie Stapinski, a DAF account holder at the Pittsburgh Foundation, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Read MoreThe federal Opportunity Zone tax incentive program is designed to spur economic development and job creation in underserved communities across the United States by providing significant tax benefits to investors.
A new white paper by the Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative explores the vital role community foundations can play in leveraging opportunity zones as a tool in their communities.
When Steve Kendall was growing up, the highlight of his week was the family trip to the local library. At an early age, his parents taught him that knowledge was power, easily found in the pages of books. He and his wife, Laraine, attribute much of their success to their lifelong love of reading.
Intrigued by research showing better outcomes for children who were able to read on grade level by third grade, they wondered what rural libraries could accomplish if they were empowered with focused funding to get children excited about reading.
That shared love of reading led the Kendalls to start the Georgia Rural Library Initiative (GRLI), a decade-long series of investments in rural county libraries in partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.
Read MoreMarilynn Taylor of New London, Wis., was president of Wohlt Creamery LLC, a manufacturer of processed cheeses and one of the city’s 10 largest employers.
She died Feb. 25, 2017, at age 71, leaving her entire business, including the building, equipment, 60 employees and a lot of cheese, in the care of her estate representative and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
The Community Foundation found a buyer for the business, and kept all workers employed — ensuring that it remained a stable employer.
What’s more, the sale of the cheese processing business and manufacturing facility will net the Community Foundation about $5.8 million. In addition, the foundation received additional assets from Taylor totaling about $2.5 million.
Read MoreAs natural and man-made disasters continue to grow in number and intensity, community foundations are increasingly being leaned on to provide support to affected communities.
Read MoreFoundation for the Carolinas has distributed its first round of grants to help those affected by Hurricane Florence.
It joins community foundations in several other regions of the country that have set up and administered funds to support those who have been affected by hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, mass shootings, and wildfires this year.
