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Fund seeks to grow community foundations worldwide
By MAGGIE I. JARUZEL
The picturesque city of Tuzla, located on the slopes of the Majevica Mountains, was unlike others in Central/Eastern Europe in 2003 because it seemed to have plenty of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to address its community’s needs.
With a network of about 90 NGOs, Tuzla had more than most other communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. So what could be gained by creating another NGO to work in the nation’s third-largest city?
“We were trying to show that there was a need for citizen involvement in promoting community philanthropy. There was a huge movement of civil society organizations, but no one was promoting a way to fund all these NGOs in the Tuzla region,” said Jasna Jasarevic, executive director of Community Foundation-Tuzla (CFT).
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People from many local nonprofits clean up the Simin Han section of the city of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the direction of Community Foundation-Tuzla.
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“The biggest problem was deciding how we could show ourselves as different from all the other NGOs. But we are grantmakers, and people find that the grantmaking portion of what we do is quite unique.”
CFT is the country’s first and only community foundation, although other cities are now exploring the concept.
In 2006, CFT made 17 grants to local NGOs, ranging from about $200 to $700, to support three major areas: youth activities; community education; and a discretionary area for projects related to environment, social services, sports, community development and cultural events.
But CFT also has been on the receiving end of the grantmaking process after a newer international organization —WINGS Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) — selected it and other emerging community foundations worldwide to receive financial support.
The GFCF was created in 2006 after several international funders — the World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Ford, W.K. Kellogg and Mott foundations — pooled resources to help develop community philanthropy worldwide.
“I see an incredible future for community foundations because of their flexibility,” said Gerry Salole, chief executive of the European Foundation Centre (EFC). “They allow local communities to be in the driver’s seat, gathering their own resources and making decisions about where those resources should go.”
The Brussels-based EFC, which serves as the legal and fiscal sponsor for the GFCF, received a three-year, $300,000 Mott grant in 2006 to support the fund. That money — when combined with grants from the other funders — helped the GFCF meet the World Bank’s $550,000 challenge grant issued in 2006. The required match money for 2007 and 2008 is still being sought.
The GFCF supports emerging community foundations in developing and transitioning countries, like CFT, in a variety of activities. These include connecting with specialists to develop and strengthen internal operations, participating in national and international study visits to learn from others, collecting and sharing information, developing strategies for creating donor databases, and conducting fundraising campaigns fueled by challenge grants that provide matching funds for money raised.
In 2006, the GFCF provided its first round of grants to 10 community foundations and support organizations to engage in these and other activities. Those grants totaled $314,500.
In early 2007, the GFCF made a second round of grants to 12 different community foundations totaling $231,150, including $15,000 to CFT to help strengthen its grantmaking and its efforts to develop a donor base.
In both funding cycles, GFCF grantees represented emerging philanthropies from Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
“To really understand a community foundation, you have to see how it is used locally,” said Jenny Hodgson, GFCF’s director, who is based in southeast Asia.
“Every culture has a specific need that resonates with that culture, but it is different everywhere. Sometimes I take a deep breath and wonder, ‘How will the community foundation concept play out in this country?’ because in Kenya it looks different than in Russia, and in Russia it looks different than in Thailand.”
For example, many countries in Africa have a tradition of intergenerational giving, she said. Tribal and clan members gave food, money and other necessities to meet the needs of the strangers and also young and old within their groups. Historically, there is an African concept called “ubuntu,” which means “a person is a person through other people.”
In Russia and other former Soviet-bloc countries, the historical concept of giving is somewhat different, Hodgson said. Communism created widespread distrust and suspicion about most organized activities. So residents in the region tended to give cash directly to strangers in need, such as street beggars, instead of giving it to other people or organizations to distribute.
Although each nation has its own history, culture and challenges, community foundation specialists agree that all community foundations — no matter where they are located — share features that make them different from other nonprofits:
- Addressing the long-term needs of an entire community, usually in a defined geographic region;
- Collecting, managing and distributing local donations to nonprofit groups;
- Mobilizing local resources from all segments of a community, including human, financial and physical capital; and
- Providing broad local and visionary leadership while applying good governance principles.
Since the late 1970s, Mott has provided more than $100 million to help build and strengthen the community foundation field in North America and internationally.
The GFCF was created in 2006 as a project of the Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaker Support (WINGS), a global network of 140 membership and support organizations that serve funders, including community foundations. Because both WINGS and GFCF share a common goal — spreading the community foundation concept globally — staff members at each organization are involved in the ongoing operations of GFCF.
Mott’s grants helped launch WINGS in January 2000 and the Foundation continues to support WINGS as itoperates under the legal and fiscal framework of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium.
The consortium is an independent association of grantmakers and philanthropic organizations that support the growth and development of philanthropy in the Asia Pacific region. It is based in Manila, Philippines, where WINGS’ executive director, Marissa Camacho-Reyes, is located.
The most asked questions from leaders of new and emerging community foundations often are about fundraising, she said. People are interested in learning how they can secure enough money to pay operating expenses, write grant checks and build a pot of money for the future.
EFC’s Salole agrees, and said it is especially true in many African countries, where community leaders of poor villages mistakenly believe that there are no resources within their grasp.
But experience shows otherwise. New community foundation leaders throughout the African continent connect with local leaders from informal, but highly effective, joint savings groups and burial societies. The foundation leaders marvel at the groups’ ability to pool pots of money from poor regions, Salole said.
“From Cairo to Cape Town, in both urban and rural communities, poor people are absolutely dependent upon coming together to share resources through rotating credit associations. It’s a survivalist strategy,” he said.
“I see community foundations as formal and registered institutions that can become stronger when they are linked with these informal and unregistered, but resilient, groups.”
Leaders of the West Coast Community Foundation (WCCF), located in Malmesbury in the Western Cape province of South Africa, agree.
It is essential to link with local residents who know both the needs and strengths of their specific communities, says Raymond Bennett, WCCF program officer.
“It’s useless for us to just give out money. People are in partnership with us in mutually beneficial ways. We learn from each other.”
In addition to hosting workshops for government officials and NGOs, the foundation also serves as a bridge to link community members who have specific needs with the appropriate government offices, Bennett said.
In 2007, the WCCF gave 35 grants of about $700 each to local NGOs to support music, drama, sports and recreation programs for children and youth; horticultural projects for farmers; and micro-enterprise projects for women.
The WCCF is held up as an example for the dozens of other NGOs in the Western Cape area to emulate because it practices good governance, leads effectively, and monitors grant projects while they are active and evaluates them when they are complete, Bennett said.
Nevertheless, in 2007, the WCCF applied for, and received, a $15,000 grant from the GFCF to help diversify and strengthen the skills of its board and staff, especially in their ability to tap local resources.
Those associated with community foundations are not surprised that they are recognized as one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy in the world.
Why? Because the community foundation concept resonates with people worldwide, said Monica Patten, president and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada. She also is chair of WINGS Coordinating Committee and chair of GFCF’s Management Committee.
“People want roots. They want a place in their own community where they can express a commitment, express a caring concern. And the community foundation is a fabulous place to do that.”
This article also appears in the upcoming August 2007 issue of our periodic magazine,
Mott Mosaic.