Tamarack Resource Library - Community Engagement - Foundations

The links that appear in this section are meant to challenge our conventional thinking about Community Foundations and their role in communities. That means the resource could offer a different perspective on foundations, or it could say that the concept is flat-out wrong. We want to know about all the thinking in this field, not just from people who agree with our view.

This series of short position papers, written by members of the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network (TCFN), asks whether community foundations—even the most progressive ones—are doing all they can to engage civil society. Their working definition of “Civil Society” is “activities that engage individuals in recognizing their rights and responsibilities as citizens within a democracy.” The eight authors of the working papers discuss the following topics:

George Hepburn discusses how community foundations must juggle their responsibilities of grant administration and community leadership.
Carolyn Milne discusses risk-taking by community foundations on social-justice issues.
Emmett D. Carson asks whether community foundations are being as inclusive as possible in their roles as actors in civil society.
Ruth Shack draws connections between the rise of democracy, globalization, and community foundations, and how these forces interact.
Lew Feldstein discusses the various ways community foundations can have non-financial influence over their communities—through research, leadership, and informal links.
Olga Alexeeva examines the various ways that community foundations can build bridges between different classes, races, and cultures in society.
Jolana Novotná compares community foundations which are high-visibility and risk-taking with those which work more in the background, behind the scenes.
Vera Billen explores how community foundations can foster links between separate, narrowly-defined social groups, such as she encountered in Belgium.

The Center for Effective Philanthropy offers this short summary of Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer’s important article, Philanthropy’s New Agenda: Creating Value, strongly influenced our view of what community foundations are. The full article can be ordered for a small fee from the Harvard Business Review. The Center for Effective Philanthropy, co-founded by management strategists Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, researches how corporate governance and effectiveness can be applied to philanthropic and social organizations.

This report on a conference co-sponsored by the Center for Effective Philanthropy and The Boston Foundation concluded that most community foundations are not examining and critiquing their own effectiveness enough.