By Ann Richards
With a community foundation comes community-owned change, from the bottom-up and from the inside out, says Stephen J. Hammersley, chief executive of the London-based Community Foundation Network (CFN). A membership organization that supports the development and expansion of community foundations in the United Kingdom (UK) by providing technical assistance, training, data collection, research, marketing, financial assistance and advocacy, CFN works to unleash the power of local giving. In 2006, more than 12,500 individuals in the UK donated to a community foundation, according to a survey released in March 2007.
"Community foundations across the UK provided more than $70 million in grants to organizations working on local projects in 2006," Hammersley said. "Our growth has been particularly rapid over the past three years -- we've experienced 20 to 25 percent increase in our collective endowments -- which now exceed $141 million."
CFN also is working to implement national standards and manage a $90 million, ten-year program utilizing government funds to work in disadvantaged communities, according to Hammersley. Several major challenges remain, however.
"While we're very pleased with the growth, about half of our community foundations are heavily reliant on government funding for their sustainability. As that funding is withdrawn, we are faced with replacing that income and building the capacity of individual community foundations to increase local giving more proactively.
"The government has indicated some interest in using its resources to promote a culture of giving at the community level. They are particularly interested in a challenge model funded by the Mott Foundation in the early 1990s that provided matching funds to build the endowments of community foundations," said Hammersley.
CFN also is working with several major UK banks and financial advisors to help them and their clients understand the potential that community foundations have for helping them address issues affecting less prosperous parts of the country.
"One of our key roles is to act on behalf of groups of community foundations by helping them tap potential donors who may have an interest in a specific geographic area or a specific type of activity."
"That is one of the values of our network," Hammersley continued. "We have made it easier to develop relationships and link together to promote ourselves and our work."
Since 1992, the C.S. Mott Foundation has provided grants totaling more than $3.8 million in support CFN, which has become one of the most recognized community foundation membership associations worldwide since its founding in 1991. In just over 15 years, CFN has helped move the United Kingdom from being a country with no community foundations and lack of broad public acceptance of giving for endowment to a network of 56 community foundations serving 94 percent of the UK.
CFN also plays a small but increasing role in the international development of the community foundation field, participating in exchanges and information sharing with peer community foundations from across Western and Central/Eastern Europe, as well as Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The network participates in the Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaker Support (WINGS), a global network of more than 135 membership organizations and support organizations serving grantmakers worldwide.
"Because the community foundation movement is so young in the UK, we feel as though we have a role to play with emerging foundations in other countries," Hammersley said. Many of the original directors, staff and board members of our community foundations are still involved and can speak from the perspective of facing first-hand the challenges of starting up a community foundation.
"We also share some common attitudes and an economy and tax structure with some similarities to mainland Europe," he continued. "There are a number of parallels between our experience and what communities in the rest of Europe are challenged by as they start community foundations."
The network is eager to share its "collective learning" with community foundations elsewhere in the world, Hammersley said.
"It is a small but important part of our work. We still have a lot to do in the UK. We will continue to use the lessons we've learned to build our own capacity as well as encourage a national environment that supports charitable giving."