Community Foundations are independent philanthropic organizations that serve a geographically defined community. The concept originally developed in United States and Canada but proved highly adaptable to a variety of local conditions in developing and less affluent societies. Community foundations, typically, have six key features:
(i) grant-making;
(ii) fund-raising (both local and external to community);
(iii) broadly defined vision;
(iv) local board of trustees reflective of community;
(v) serving geographically defined community;
(vi) building endowment. Community Foundations apply a variety of creative approaches to support citizen-led development efforts, and mobilize a range of local as well as external resources to sustain community dynamism. Local political, social, and economic conditions affect the mix of approaches used. The Community Foundation Initiative (CFI) was launched in March 2003 by the World Bank, in partnership with other foundations such as the Ford Foundation, C.S. Mott Foundation and Council on Foundations. CFI is anchored within the Community Driven Development (CDD) group, where it explores how Community Foundations could contribute to long-term sustainability of CDD projects. The objectives of this initiative are: to raise awareness among World Bank staff about the concept and potential contribution of Community Foundations to development programs; and to identify and develop World Bank pilot projects in various regions in order to demonstrate the modalities of integrating Community Foundations in CDD and other relevant World Bank operations.
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