October 2003, The Foundation Strategy Group (FSG)
Commissioned by the Council on Foundations and released in October 2003, this white paper details the findings and the implications of our study of costs and revenues at nine community foundations. Offering a new perspective for community foundation sustainability, the white paper proposes that community foundations examine their strategy and operations on a product-by-product basis, taking into account their mission-driven priorities, internal costs, customer preferences and the competing donor alternatives for each type of product or service they offer.
This report focuses exclusively on the economic and donor considerations in operating a community foundation, although FSG fully recognizes that equally important questions arise about the ways community foundations can create strategies to achieve the greatest social impact through their grantmaking and community leadership.
Some may find grounds for pessimism in this study. Certainly, the data suggests some reasons for concern about the long-term sustainability of foundations that ignore today’s realities. But there is far greater cause for optimism. The unique role of community foundations has not been – and will not be – supplanted by any of its competitors. Each foundation can find within its own strengths a wide range of opportunities for growth,
financial sustainability, and social impact. The evidence suggests only that no foundation can continue business as usual. Instead, each foundation must redefine its opportunities in light of external and internal realities, and make a set of disciplined strategic choices about its priorities. Given the right information and the right set of choices, however, our research concludes that community foundations can continue to thrive, now and in the
future.
