When the next recession hits, donor-advised funds are expected to help cushion the blow for nonprofits, even as other revenue sources decline, a new study finds.

The study — conducted by Dan Heist, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Danielle Vance-McMullen, an assistant professor at the University of Memphis — used Internal Revenue Service data from 2007 to 2016 to analyze the grant making activity of donors who have funds at 996 donor-advised-fund sponsors.

The Wichita Foundation’s Talent Ecosystem Fund, has already helped draw 49 people to relocate to Wichita to get trained for high-skilled careers.

Rather than simply paying for tuition, the fund is investing in helping students with relocation and living costs while they go back to school.

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.

New 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.

As 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.

A 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?

Why 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.

The 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.

Marilynn 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.