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Ask CMF

As a member benefit, this 1-to-1 technical assistance service brings the best of CMF’s expertise to your organization in response to your unique needs, connecting you with best practices in grantmaking, legal and operational insights, sample documents and more. We can also provide tailored salary and benefits benchmarking data from the field to support your foundation’s planning. Led by CMF’s Knowledge Insights Expert in Residence Brittany Kienker, Ph.D., Ask CMF brings the best of CMF’s expertise to your organization.

We respond to hundreds of Ask CMF questions throughout the year, ranging in scope and issue area. 

  • Board policies and procedures  
  • Community needs assessments 
  • Conflict of interest and self-dealing situations 
  • Corporate giving best practices 
  • Disaster grantmaking and operations 
  • Family foundation succession planning and next generation involvement 
  • Giving trends 
  • Legal requirements 
  • Performance evaluations 
  • Sample documents 
  • Scholarship program policies 
  • Staff salary and benefits data 

CMF is dedicated to supporting and strengthening our community of philanthropy. Through Ask CMF, your questions have led to new ideas, solutions and resources that have become a valued part of foundations’ work across the state. We look forward to helping you with your current questions and challenges. 

How it works: 

  • After logging into the CMF website, access the online Ask CMF form. 
  • Tell us your name and email address, then briefly describe your question or request for assistance. 
  • We will respond within one business day to confirm receipt of your message and answer your question. If the request requires more extensive research or data gathering, we’ll let you know. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Salary survey data is one of the most popular questions for Ask CMF! We frequently recommend that members look at Exponent Philanthropy’s “Foundation Operations and Management Report,” Michigan Nonprofit Association’s “Compensation and Benefits Report,” and the Council on Foundation’s “Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Report.” Members also have access to a free copy of the Midwest Grantmaker Salary, Benefits, & Demographics Report. Feel free to reach out to Ask CMF to learn more about personalized salary reports available to all member foundations.

Foundations frequently contact Ask CMF with a variety of board member-related questions, ranging from “What do I do about inactive board members?” to “How long should board members sit on a board?” To address these and other board-related questions, we created an easy-to-use document on the topic of board term limits, including the pros and cons of term limits, as well as industry best practice for determining the length of board terms, available here.

Member foundations frequently contact Ask CMF and CMF staff soon after disaster strikes, whether a community-wide weather event or an unexpected situation related to foundations’ staff, board, or operations. CMF developed a “Frequently Asked Questions About Disasters” resource which is available for download in our Knowledge Center. This toolkit delves into the complexities of managing foundation operations and grant programs under disaster conditions while providing connections to sources from our national and regional partners that have been most useful to CMF members facing unexpected situations in their area. If your foundation is experiencing a crisis or preparing for such a situation, please contact Ask CMF for assistance and additional resources.

The go-to resource for most data related to corporate philanthropy is CECP’s Giving in Numbers Report. Ask CMF’s most frequent question related to corporate data is in regard to annual corporate contributions as a percentage of pre-tax income. According to CECP's 2021 report (including 2020 data), total giving/community investments in 2020 reached $36.6 million, with total giving as a percentage of pre-tax profits reaching 1.25% (a sharp increase due to the global pandemic).  This represented an increase from 0.88% in 2018.

Through Ask CMF, we regularly receive questions about the grantmaking process and how to create a due diligence system that works, especially for small-staffed or volunteer-based grantmaking teams. Whether you are looking for rubrics to assist in making grant decisions or you want sample grant applications, Ask CMF can help! We also created a document specifically for CMF members entitled, “The Basics of the Grantmaking Process and Due Diligence,” which may be the perfect resource to understand grantmaking or explain it to your staff or board members. You may download this resource here.

The topic of board compensation has emerged as a frequently asked question among CMF members and foundations nationally over the last several years. The most useful data on this topic originates from Exponent Philanthropy’s “Foundation Operations and Management Report” and the National Center for Family Philanthropy’s “Trends 2020” report. According to NCFP’s report, 35% of respondents’ foundations provided board members with modest stipends, 30% reimbursed out-of-pocket expenses only, and 35% did not pay fees or reimburse expenses. Stipend amounts and likelihood of compensating board members vary by foundation type and asset size.

CMF does not maintain a public directory of grantmaking foundations. Instead, we highly recommend that you visit Foundation Directory Online to learn more about other funders active in your area. If you have a specific question about how to find information on foundations or navigate other data sources related to the field, please contact Ask CMF.

According to Foundation Center, Michigan philanthropy is comprised of 2,181 foundations. In 2015 (the most recent data from Foundation Stats), total giving in Michigan reached over $1.66 billion from grantmakers with total assets of over $31 billion. For more facts and figures about Michigan philanthropy, please visit our MI Philanthropy webpage.

Individuals, families and companies regularly reach out to CMF to learn how they can give back to their communities through philanthropy. CMF has compiled two reports "Options for Your Financial Giving," a resource for individuals and families, and "Choosing a Corporate Approach," a resource for companies.

Questions? Ask CMF!

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