April 2005, Foundation Strategy Group (FSG)
The purpose of the study is to explore the level of interest in the field in new ways of collecting and analyzing data about community foundation finances and operations. In addition, to explore the potential benefits, economic model, required capabilities for an entity that could provide new data collection and analysis services.
As part of the long-term research agenda of the Community Foundations Leadership Team of the Council on Foundations, FSG recently surveyed the field to better understand:
- recent challenges to the economic sustainability of community foundations,
- the use of cost-revenue studies, and
- the extent of interest in gathering more consistent and timely benchmarking data about community foundation finances and operations.
Based on a survey of nearly 250 community foundation CEOs and CFOs as well as in-depth interviews with leaders in the community foundation field, this presentation summarizes FSG’s learnings.
