On the Brink of New Promise

The Future of U.S. Community Foundations

Lucy Bernholz, Katherine Fulton, and Gabriel Kasper

2005, 60 pages. Blueprint Research and Design, 720 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-677-9700, www.blueprintrd.com

Download pdf: www.blueprintrd.com

This substantive report, initiated by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Ford Foundation, examines the history of community foundations and community philanthropy in the U.S. and offers both short- and long-term scenarios for the future. The ecology of donors to community philanthropy is changing. Central to this report is an overview that positions the community foundation within this ecology and in relationship to service providers, independent philanthropic advisors, and other alternative means of giving that donors are increasingly employing. Similarly, the report examines the changing landscape of ways that community foundations serve their communities, partner with nonprofits, and measure their impact.

Additional resources, including a "toolkit" designed to help community foundations apply the findings of the report to their work, are on the web at http://www.communityphilanthropy.org/.