So far this market disruption has not yet fully played out. The local financial advisers and estate planners that community foundations tend to build their philanthropic relationships and business models around are still here today.
Most in the community foundation universe see the concern, though some disagree on the level of concern. They believe foundations provide something unique.“ There are perhaps less expensive donor-advised funds in the commercial market,” says Veronica Blake, CEO of Placer Community Foundation, but automated financial planning services and behemoths like Fidelity and Charles Schwab know nothing of the local community.“ We’ ll never compete on price, but I think that the service that we provide to donors and the connectivity to the community is why donors do use community foundations,” Blake says.
This appears to be the selling point for most of the nation’ s community foundations. They know their regions’ strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else, and they are uniquely placed to address those weaknesses.
“ Every community foundation is just a little bit different,” says Linda Philipp of the San Joaquin Community Foundation.“ We all focus on the individual needs of our communities.” Philipp says the San Joaquin Community Foundation, founded in 2012, spent its first five years on education and outreach, and it’ s only now finally paying off.“ People are starting to get the idea now, so we really have experienced some tremendous growth over the last couple years,” she says.
The Solano Community Foundation, for instance, focuses on education— third-grade reading and ninth-grade math in particular, known as“ bottleneck years” that can affect learning in those subjects long after. In Placer County, the foundation is rallying community support for affordable housing. The Amador Community Foundation recently spearheaded a campaign to save a homeless shelter whose shuttering would have put 38 residents on the streets.
Most of the region’ s community foundations report confidence in the future, so long as awareness is increased.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF AMADOR COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
Often, says Kathleen Harmon of the Amador Community Foundation,“ people have no idea what a community foundation does.”
STRANGERS IN TOWN An international firm doesn’ t know what the local issues are, Philipp says.“ They’ re not going to make those connections for people,” she says.“ They’ re just the vehicle only. We’ re so much more.”
In the same way that each community’ s needs are unique, every foundation is at its own stage in monetary and community development.
At a recent gathering, California’ s community foundations self-reported that dollars under management ranged from $ 8.2 billion at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation— which recently took in half a billion dollars from Facebook’ s Mark Zuckerberg— to“ under $ 10 million” at the state’ s smallest foundations. San Joaquin and Placer reported $ 12 million and $ 14.5 million, respectively. Sacramento Regional Community Foundation was just over $ 125 million.
Once a community foundation has funds, it can theoretically hold onto them forever. But if they want to continue to experience growth, these groups need to keep younger residents in their regions giving, engaged and onboard with the community foundation concept. Often that involves
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