Board members and staff of philanthropic institutions regularly reach out to CMF to explore and better understand the unique legal regulations and best practices of community foundations. Providing information unique to community foundations is essential, recognizing that community foundations and other public charity grantmakers have many similarities to private foundations, but have different rules and regulations that must be followed as a subset of 501(c)(3) organizations. Additionally, there are relatively few qualified counsel experienced in working with community foundations, which have challenges, opportunities and context that is unique compared to their sector peers.

This handbook is a practical tool that will help you think through the pros and cons, the ins and outs, and the nuts and bolts of developing and supporting a healthy giving circle.

This resource contains useful advice and a number of ready-to-use tools for you to write on, share with your board and your (potential) giving circle members, modify, and adapt. More tools, sample documents, and information are available at the Forum’s Giving Circles Knowledge Center: www.giving forum.org/givingcircles. This online resource is continually updated with stories and resources from giving circles across the country. We hope you will visit the Knowledge Center and share your story with other giving circles.

A collection of sample documents for community foundations.

While civic foundations and community foundations share some similar characteristics, this document clarifies the primary differences between the two types of organizations.

Through Ask CMF, community foundations and other philanthropic grantmakers frequently submit questions related to making changes to fund agreements for the funds that they hold. This resource is intended to provide further clarification on this topic, building on the material included in the CMF resource, “Frequently Asked Questions About Fund Agreements.”

Community foundations have different needs than private or corporate foundations. The software to meet them is different, too. But because those needs are so wide-ranging—not just making grants, but soliciting donations, managing investments, awarding scholarships, and protecting donors’ funds—it’s difficult to find one system that does everything.

Many of the solutions on the market instead focus on integrating with other tools—either their own, or those sold by other vendors. These “component” solutions can go a long way toward meeting your needs, but the nature of the piecemeal systems can make it harder to understand what they’re capable of, much less which is right for you.

This report reviews and compares eight software packages to see how they meet the specific needs of community foundations.