Community Foundations

Community foundations face complex challenges that other funders do not. They must balance donor development, service to the community, and grantmaking impact against their own long term economic sustainability. FSG has worked with dozens of community foundations to help them create strategies that simultaneously maximize social impact and donor engagement within realistic constraints.

Community foundations combine substantial resources, political neutrality, a broad network of relationships, and a detailed understanding of both the community's needs and its nonprofit sector. As a result, community foundations are well positioned to play a critical leadership role within their geographical areas.

At the same time, the sustainability of community foundations is challenged by competition from commercial charitable gift funds and the substantial incremental costs associated with managing donor-advised funds. No philanthropic strategy can be viable unless it addresses both the competitive and the economic pressures community foundations face.

Over the past five years, FSG has been at the forefront of community foundation research and strategy development. We have worked with dozens of foundations of all sizes to understand their donors, costs, and opportunities for social impact. We have collaborated with the Council on Foundations Community Foundations Leadership Team to develop financial modeling tools, survey best practices, and study the competitive environment. We are also working with the field to launch  Community Foundation Insights.

Our strategy and implementation services for community foundations include:

• Foundation strategy and positioning. How can we attract and serve donors while maximizing our contribution to the community?
• Program strategy. How can we achieve the greatest impact in each of our program areas by combining our grantmaking with the many non-monetary resources we bring?
• Donor development strategy. How can we meaningfully engage current and prospective donors in our work? What products and services will our donors find most attractive?
• Adaptive leadership. How can we leverage our unique position in the community to take leadership on important social issues?
• Strategic communication. How do we use communications to build our brand identity and further our strategy?