What is a Community Foundation?
Community Foundations are a new kind of charitable trust, locally managed and independent.
There are 56 local community foundations throughout the UK which cover 94% of the population; with the majority working within their county boundaries as endowment builders, grant-makers and community leaders.
There are two broad purposes to a community foundation:
- To work with the community supporting local voluntary and community activity through a programme of locally based, constructive grant making and capacity building.
- To work with local donors by pooling individual donations into a high interest endowment fund and to provide permanent and growing funding for activities that strengthen the community.
Donations come from a range of sources, but principally from philanthropic individuals and community-minded companies.
Alongside their work in developing endowment, Community Foundations administer flow through funding attached to local, regional and national initiatives.
Collectively the Community Foundations made more than £70 million in grants, benefitting over 18,000 community groups last year.
