How it works
Using interest income from invested assets, a community foundation functions primarily as a grant making institution supporting a broad range of charitable activities that address emerging and changing community needs.A community foundation may also serve as a facilitator, convener or mediator around significant community issues, and provides technical advice to donors and nonprofits.
A community foundation has an independent governing body representing the broad interests of the community, and adheres to a sense of“community” that overrides interests and objects of any particular individuals and groups.
Briefly:
- Use interest invest, need investment profession/financial
- support charitable activities
- meet the needs of community. It said: support the activities that address emerging(come out) and changing community needs.
- CF may involved community issues, try to facilitate , convener (gathering) or mediator (middle man)
- CF can provide technical advice for donors and NPO
- CF is independent, charge by local community, and will make local people a sense that, CF is ours , it’s not any other particular person or groups.
Donor’s options – types of funds built by a Community Foundation
- Unrestricted Fund 无限制的基金会
The donor allows the community foundation the discretion on the use of annual income for a broad range of community issues. This provides the foundation the opportunity to respond to changing community needs. 捐助者允许CF使用一定数量的金额用来回应社区的需求。
- Limited Period Project Funds 规定期限的项目基金会
Working closely with donors, the community foundation identifies an unmet charitable need and establishes a fund to meet that need. Over time, the fund is expended in order to meet the community need.在一定时期内，CF将把花费用于回应社区的需求。
- Field-of-Interest Funds 特定领域基金
The donor directs the community foundation to use the annual income in a certain program area such as education, youth or the environment, with the foundation determining the specific recipient from time to time.
- Donor-Advised Funds 捐助者定向基金：捐助者提出基金的使用建议
The donor actively participates in grant making by recommending to the community foundation the purpose and/or organization(s) that might receive the annual income.
- Designated Funds 捐助者指定基金：指定把钱捐给特定的组织
The donor directs the community foundation to pay the annual income to as pecific named organization in perpetuity.
- Agency Endowment Funds 协会捐赠基金
Other charities in the community place their endowment funds with the community foundation for management and investment purposes. The community foundation regularly distributes the annual income back to these agencies for their general purposes. 在社区的其他慈善组织将钱捐给CF，基于特定的目的。
- Supporting Foundations 支持性基金会
Another charitable organization, a supporting foundation can attach itself to the community foundation and achieve public charity status. 其他慈善机构可以作为CF的附属或者下属机构，进行其他公共活动。
- For potential donors, existing private, family and corporate foundations 帮助设立信托基金，提供捐助者教育、社区需求评估、专业项目制定、服务的监测评估。帮助潜在的资助者建立自己的基金会
Using the common platform provided by a community foundation, assistance could be offered to donors with different backgrounds and wealth to help them set up their own trust funds or other philanthropic vehicles, which is flexible enough to fulfill the individual donors’ own charity goals. At the same time, a wide range of donor services will be provided including donor education,community needs assessment, professional grant making services, service monitoring and assessment, etc. Potential donors could thus save the legal and professional costs for establishing and running their own foundations.Existing private, family and corporate foundations could also benefit from partnerships with the community foundation.
- For other nonprofits and community groups 对于NPO和其他社区组织，能获得额外的筹资机会，同样可以获得CF的资助（从资金到管理以及社会资源上的帮助）
Nonprofit organizations and community groups could gain access to additional funding opportunities, build their own endowments, or solicit their philanthropic supporters to establish“designated funds” for funding their services, all of which could be structured using the platform of the community foundation. Small community groups lacking fundraising capacity could also benefit since “field-of-interest funds”could be established for supporting the activities of a specific service sector or over certain service domains. The community foundation will also serve the function of a charity bank helping other charities to save the troubles of dealing with difficult investment decisions.
- For Government bodies and other existing funding organizations对政府和其他基金组织：整合资源、专业知识，同样还能作为草根的声音来源。由于社区基金会有召集的功能，能加强当地社区的参与感和治理，利于当地社区的发展。
In addition to forming funders’ collaborative for leveraging resources and expertise, a community foundation could also serve as an important source of information in channeling the voices from the grassroots to various funding bodies. By undertaking the community convening function – yet another core function of a well-developed community foundation – it aims to achieve the desired goal of enhancing participatory and inclusive governance in indigenous philanthropy and community development.