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The United States has more than 900 community foundations, ranging from small organizations serving rural counties to major institutions like the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which holds more than $15 billion in assets. Community foundations occupy a distinctive niche in the philanthropic ecosystem: they aggregate charitable giving from many local donors, manage endowments, provide donor advised fund services, and deploy grants toward local priorities. Their geographic focus is both their strength , they often have deep knowledge of local conditions , and a constraint on their ability to address issues that cross jurisdictional lines.

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== The equity challenge ==

Community foundations' historical relationships with local power structures have sometimes meant that their grant making reflected the priorities of wealthy donors more than the needs of under resourced communities. A growing movement within the community foundation field , often called participatory grantmaking , seeks to shift decision making power toward the communities most affected by the issues being addressed. This means including community members on grant review committees, funding organizations led by and accountable to affected communities, and designing processes that are accessible to organizations with limited staff capacity. Community foundations that have made this shift report stronger community relationships, better intelligence about local needs, and increased trust from historically underserved constituencies.

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''Originally published October 14, 2017 on [https://docmoates.com/blog/community-foundations-and-place-based-philanthropy-2/ docmoates.com].''