Oct 01, 2020

Candid; CF Insights;

The Community Leadership Assessment Tool is an instrument whose development was informed by conversations among community foundations who desired a structured mechanism to assess their community leadership activities and communicate the impact of their work beyond financial metrics. At the foundation-level, this tool is designed to inform practice. At the field level, results from this tool will be aggregated to provide a broader perspective on how foundations are engaging in community leadership efforts.

Jan 22, 2020

Candid; GrantCraft;

This guide captures the wisdom of philanthropic leaders who have participated in multi-party advocacy collaboratives. It synthesizes information to dig deeper and understand the pain points and levers of success tied to funding advocacy and donor collaboratives. Examples have been anonymized to ensure candor and clarity, as well as to broaden the appeal and applicability of wisdom derived from a specific collaborative example. Each bite-sized chapter is intended to make this work easy to reference and share, and to read as a full body of work or in pieces as is helpful and relevant to your work.

Nov 14, 2019

Candid; Forefront;

Illinois is home to over 5,200 active grantmaking foundations spanning all types—independent or family, corporate, community, and operating—sizes, and issue areas. The community includes many foundations that only give locally or within the state, as well as those that fund nationally and even internationally. Giving in Illinois provides an overview of the scale and composition of the Illinois foundation community and grantmaking priorities of foundations funding in Illinois.

Nov 13, 2019

Candid; Southeastern Council of Foundations;

Southeastern Council of Foundations (SECF) partnered with Candid to develop key findings that highlight data and trends on philanthropy in the South. This edition of the Trends Report captures the 50-year history of SECF, focused on the ways Southern philanthropy has changed since its founding in 1969. The data presented here tells a powerful story. In the last five decades, Southern philanthropy has grown significantly by every measure.A region where giving was once dominated by family foundations is now host to a diverse network of funders, including some who did not even exist 50 years ago. That change shows no signs of slowing, either–this century alone has seen significant growth in assets and giving.Overall, the information provided here shows that Southern philanthropy is stronger than ever–and more ready than ever to transform communities and improve lives.

Sep 12, 2019

Candid; GrantCraft;

This case study has been developed in companionship with Investing in Native Communities, a joint project of Candid and Native Americans in Philanthropy. Learn about how the Bush Foundation is taking active steps to engage in a culture of intentionality with data.

Jun 13, 2019

Candid; Fractured Atlas; See Chicago Dance; Sustain Arts;

The Chicago region is a hub for arts and culture and boasts a thriving dance community. What do we know about the dance sector in Chicagoland (defined in this report as Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties in Illinois and Lake County, Indiana)? And what do the data reveal about opportunities and challenges facing dancers, dance organizations, and the sector as whole?

May 21, 2019

Candid; Center for Disaster Philanthropy; The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy;

In 2017, the U.S. experienced the costliest year of major natural disasters on record; 2018 was the fourth costliest year. In this two-year period, how many Americans donated to disaster aid and how much? What are the main drivers for disaster giving? Does giving to disaster aid come at the expense of other causes? Based on new data on American household giving, this forthcoming research brief answers questions about the patterns, preferences, and practices of individual charitable giving for disaster aid.

Dec 14, 2018

CF Insights; Foundation Center;

With the proliferation of bitcoin and other forms of digital (or "crypto") currencies around the world, a growing number of charitable donations are being given via these transaction vehicles. To what extent have community foundations entered this space? Which cryptocurrencies are the most popular in the field, and which are the most popular digital payment platforms? And how do processes surrounding these gifts differ across the field? CF Insights recently conducted a survey of U.S.-based community foundations to explore these questions, and more.

Oct 08, 2018

Foundation Center; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation;

There is a complex ecosystem of organizations working to enable, strengthen, and evolve the work of philanthropy, nonprofits, and civil society around the world. These support organizations, also known as "infrastructure organizations," provide essential services such as: strategic planning; evaluation, assessment and feedback; board and staff development; data and research; legal services; business modeling; and support for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.With support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Foundation Center developed a framework to map the composition of and support for this ecosystem of infrastructure organizations so that we can better align and improve efforts to build a better future. This study spans twelve years and analyzes 21,148 infrastructure-related grants made by 881 funders to 511 organizations over that period.

Sep 21, 2018

Forefront; Foundation Center;

Giving in Illinois 2018 reveals the scope and giving priorities of the Illinois foundation community. Illinois foundation giving reached a record $4.6 billion in 2016, nearly tripling since 2006. (Adjusted for inflation, giving rose 140 percent.) By comparison, giving by U.S. foundations overall rose 77 percent during this period (or 48 percent after inflation). The analysis in this report is based on the Foundation Center's 2016 grants set, which includes all of the grants of $10,000 or more reported by 1,000 of the largest U.S. independent, corporate, community, and grantmaking operating foundations by total giving. The sample included 60 Illinois foundations with giving totaling $1.1 billion.

Sep 20, 2018

CF Insights; Foundation Center;

In partnership with a group of community foundation leaders, CF Insights conducted a field-wide survey of community foundation CEOs to determine the strength of demand for their own formalized, unified network, which would allow them to connect to each other on issues relevant to chief executives from across the community foundation field. This report examines the results.

Mar 27, 2018

Foundation Center; Grantmakers In the Arts;

Published in the Winter 2018 edition of GIA Reader, the latest edition of GIA's annual Arts Funding Snapshot will include "Foundation Grants to Arts and Culture, 2015," based on the most recent completed year of Foundation Center data, and "Public Funding for the Arts, 2017," prepared by the National Assembly of State Art Agencies (NASAA). Reina Mukai, research manager for the Foundation Center, and Ryan Stubbs, research director for NASAA, share their insight into what these findings reveal about the current arts grantmaking environment.

Jan 01, 2018

San Joaquin Valley Health Fund; Sierra Health Foundation Center for Health Program Management;

Over the last three years, a policy committee comprised of more than 50 San Joaquin Valley Health Fund (SJVHF) nonprofit leaders has met to accelerate policy and systems changes to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable children and families and advance racial equity and social justice in the region.In order to accelerate momentum, residents and local elected officials need to work together. Recognizing that, Stockton Mayor Michael D. Tubbs and Chet P. Hewitt, President and CEO of The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, convened a Leadership Conference in October 2017 in Stockton to discuss policy priorities and to create a Leadership Executive Committee, comprised of local elected officials from the Valley advocating on a united platform of policy priorities.A joint meeting of the Leadership Executive Committee and the SJVHF Policy Committee was subsequently convened to discuss and identify a set of priorities that can advance policy change on a larger systems level.The San Joaquin Valley Health Fund believes advocating for a Golden State for All means that we do not leave anyone behind. Our fundamental rights derive, irrespective of legal status, from the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As such, we will provide the leadership that some elected officials at the national level have failed to provide. Together, we are committed to building a movement across issues, ethnicities and counties so that future generations have a healthier future. The Valley is rising!The following are policy priorities that build upon our 2017 Policy Platform.

Nov 06, 2017

Foundation Center;

In 2017 Foundation Center surveyed a sample of U.S.-based foundations about whether they conduct evaluations, what they evaluate, and whether they share what they learn outside of their organization. This infographic lays out key findings from that survey.