Grants for Community Foundations: Donor-Advised Funds and Capacity Support
Grant programs and capacity-building funding available to community foundations themselves, including donor-advised fund partnerships, technology grants, and field-leadership cohorts.
Community foundations occupy an unusual position: they are themselves grantmakers, but they also receive grants for capacity building, technology infrastructure, and field leadership. The Council on Foundations and CFLeads coordinate much of this peer funding.
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Common questions about grants for community foundations
Can community foundations receive grants themselves?
Yes. While community foundations are best known as grantmakers, they regularly receive capacity-building grants from national foundations (Mott, Kresge, MacArthur, Knight), federal CDFI Fund awards, and peer-foundation cohort programs. Funding typically supports staff development, technology infrastructure, donor-advised-fund modernization, and place-based-philanthropy initiatives.
What is the CFLeads cohort program?
CFLeads is a peer-learning network for community foundations that operates cohort programs on topics like equity grantmaking, public-private partnerships, and donor mobilization. Membership and cohort participation often include modest grant support; participation also unlocks introductions to larger institutional funders.
Are there federal grants available to community foundations?
The CDFI Fund occasionally makes awards to community foundations operating loan-fund subsidiaries. HUD funds neighborhood revitalization work that community foundations partner on. The Corporation for National and Community Service (now AmeriCorps) routes federal volunteer-program dollars through some community foundations. These are exception cases, not standard operating support.
How do community foundations fundraise from larger foundations?
The most effective approach is positioning the community foundation as a regional anchor for the funder's geographic strategy: a national funder wanting impact in a specific region partners with the local community foundation rather than running its own portfolio. The Kresge Foundation, the Mott Foundation, and the Knight Foundation all operate variants of this place-based partner model.
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