Civil Society

Common Ground

We equip community foundations with the tools and resources they need to bridge divides and solve local issues together with their communities.

A woman wearing a traditional embroidered vest holds her hands up while she talks expressively.

Why It Matters

When communities are connected, inclusive and resilient, they can resolve local challenges and thrive.

A large crowd gathered to celebrate the April 2021 launch of the Mafi-Kpedzeglo Community Foundation.

Our Approach

We provide support to organizations that help community foundations build common ground by bringing diverse groups of people together to identify and address local problems.

We have two strategies to achieve our goals:

Equipping U.S. community foundations with tools and knowledge to build common ground in their communities.

Our grant funding supports:

  • The development and dissemination of capacity-building tools and measurement frameworks.
  • Efforts to bolster the capacity of providers that help design, implement and assess common-ground initiatives.
  • Intermediaries that provide seed funding to community foundations to support common ground work and convene community foundations to learn from one another.

Building sustainable support ecosystems for community foundations in Africa and Latin America.

Our grant funding supports:

  • Capacity-development efforts of national-level organizations that provide technical assistance and other resources to help establish new community foundations and strengthen existing ones.
  • Efforts to bolster the capacity of national-level support organizations to help community foundations build common ground.

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