Community Foundations: How to Find and Approach Yours
If you run a small nonprofit, your local community foundation may be one of the most natural funding partners you have. It exists to serve your area, it often funds small and mid-sized local groups, and its staff usually know the local nonprofit landscape well. Yet many small organizations have never contacted theirs.
This guide explains what community foundations are, how to find yours, how their grants work, and how to start a conversation.
What is a community foundation?
A community foundation is a public charity that pools charitable gifts from many donors, such as individuals, families, and businesses, and uses them to support a defined geographic area. That area might be a city, a county, several counties, or a region.
A few things make community foundations different from private foundations:
- They serve a place, not a single family's interests. Their grantmaking usually focuses on their region.
- They hold many funds. A community foundation may manage unrestricted funds, funds for specific causes, scholarship funds, and donor-advised funds, each with its own purpose.
- They file Form 990, not Form 990-PF. As public charities, they file the same annual return as most other charities. That affects where you look for their grants (more on that below).
How to find your community foundation
1. Use the Council on Foundations' Community Foundation Locator. The Community Foundation Locator lets you search by state and filter to show only accredited foundations.
2. Check the National Standards accreditation map. Community Foundations National Standards runs an accreditation program; accredited foundations must meet 26 national standards. Its Community Foundation Locator map shows accredited community foundations. Accreditation is a useful signal, but a foundation that isn't on the map may still be a good local funder. The map shows accredited foundations only, and the site itself points to the cof.org locator for a list of all community foundations.
3. Look more than one level up. Your town may be served by a small local foundation, a county foundation, and a larger regional one, sometimes with "affiliate" funds for smaller towns. Check all of them.
4. Ask around. Other local nonprofit leaders, your state nonprofit association (find yours in the National Council of Nonprofits directory), and your United Way often know which foundations fund in your area.
How community foundation grants work
Every community foundation sets its own process, so always read its website. Most money flows through a few common channels.
Competitive grants
Many community foundations run open, competitive grant rounds using unrestricted or field-of-interest funds. Typically you'll find:
- Published guidelines describing priorities, eligible organizations, and the geographic area.
- Deadlines, often once or twice a year, though some accept applications on a rolling basis.
- An online application, sometimes starting with a short letter of inquiry or eligibility quiz.
- A review process involving staff and often volunteer committees from the community.
Your statement of need matters a lot here. Community foundations know their region, so local, well-sourced data that matches their priorities stands out.
Donor-advised funds
A donor-advised fund (DAF) is, in the IRS's description, a separately identified fund or account maintained by a 501(c)(3) "sponsoring organization." Once a donor contributes, the sponsoring organization has legal control of the money, but the donor keeps advisory privileges over how it's granted out. You can read the IRS overview on its donor-advised funds page.
What this means for you:
- DAF grants are usually recommended by donors, not decided through an open application. You generally can't apply to a DAF.
- Relationships matter. Donors tend to recommend grants to organizations they know. It also helps if foundation staff know your work, in case a donor ever asks them for ideas.
- Be patient and respectful. Don't ask foundation staff for donors' names. Focus on being known and credible.
Scholarships and special initiatives
Many community foundations also manage scholarship funds or run special initiatives, such as disaster recovery or capacity-building programs. Sign up for their newsletter so you hear about these.
Research before you reach out
Spend 30 minutes learning about the foundation first.
- Read the website. Look for grant guidelines, recent grant lists or annual reports, and staff pages.
- Look at its Form 990. Search the foundation on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. If it reports grants to U.S. organizations, check Schedule I, which lists grants of more than $5,000 to domestic organizations and governments, with each recipient's name, amount, and purpose. Foundations that maintain donor-advised funds report information about them on Schedule D, Part I. (See the IRS Schedule I and Schedule D forms.) Keep in mind that a Schedule I list may mix competitive grants with donor-advised grants.
- Note the pattern. What causes, which towns, and what grant sizes show up again and again?
How to approach a program officer
Program officers are the staff who manage grantmaking for a focus area. At smaller foundations, one or two people may handle everything. A good relationship with them is valuable, and it starts with respecting their time.
Before you call or email:
- Read the guidelines fully. Don't ask questions the website already answers.
- Be able to explain your organization and project in two or three sentences.
- Know roughly how much you'd request and how it fits their typical grant size.
Your first message: keep it short. Introduce your organization, briefly describe the project, say why you think it fits a stated priority, and ask one or two specific questions, or ask for a brief call. For example: "Would a project like this fit your spring grant round?" or "Is there anything you'd suggest we consider before applying?"
On the call:
- Listen more than you talk. Ask what they look for and what makes applications strong.
- Ask about timing, typical grant sizes, and whether first-time applicants should start small.
- Take notes and thank them.
Afterward:
- Send a brief thank-you email.
- If they encourage you to apply, follow their advice and mention the conversation if appropriate.
- If they say it's not a fit, ask whether another fund or a future round might be, and accept the answer gracefully.
Stay in touch the right way. Invite staff to an event or site visit, send a short update when you reach a milestone, and attend community meetings or trainings the foundation hosts. If you get a grant, file reports on time. That reputation travels.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Applying outside their area. Community foundations are usually strict about geography.
- Treating DAF donors as a mailing list. Build visibility through the foundation's own channels.
- Sending a generic proposal. Tie your request to their stated priorities and local data.
- Only showing up when you need money. Relationships built between deadlines pay off.
Want help finding more local funders?
Your community foundation is a great start, but it's rarely the only local funder. CivicVane's Grant Prospect Report ($149) ranks at least 20 funders that give in your service area by fit with your mission and budget, with giving history and how to apply as each funder filed it with the IRS. If you're also preparing an application, the Grant Research Bundle ($349) adds a Statement of Need Data Brief with cited local data and a 3-pack of Single-Foundation Briefs. Both are delivered by email as PDFs within 2 business days of payment and a complete order form.
Sources
All links checked on October 25, 2026.
- Council on Foundations, Community Foundation Locator: https://www.cof.org/community-foundation-locator
- Community Foundations National Standards (accreditation program): https://www.cfstandards.org/
- Community Foundations National Standards, Community Foundation Locator (accredited foundations map): https://www.cfstandards.org/about-us/community-foundation-locator
- Community Foundations National Standards, 26 National Standards: https://www.cfstandards.org/getting-accredited/national-standards
- National Council of Nonprofits, state association directory: https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/find-your-state-association
- IRS, Donor-advised funds: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/donor-advised-funds
- IRS, Form 990 Schedule I (PDF): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f990si.pdf
- IRS, Form 990 Schedule D (PDF): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f990sd.pdf
- IRS, About Form 990: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-990
- ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/
Last checked 2026-10-25.