Community Foundations

What is a Community Foundation?

A community foundation, such as the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, is a tax-exempt, public philanthropic non-profit organization with the overall goal of building permanent funds for the public benefit of residents living in a certain area. Community foundations achieve this by building permanent endowment funds and using part of the income to support a variety of nonprofits through grants and special projects. Foundation assets are usually put in separate funds started by local individuals, families, or businesses.

While some funds may have specific purposes, the community foundation’s board of directors oversee them all. Professional staff is hired to administer funds. Operating expenses are paid from an annual fee and gifts set aside by donors to cover them.

How are Community Foundations Different from Other Organizations?
While most nonprofit organizations, such as private foundations, have very specific missions, a community foundation has the opportunity to support a variety of causes to improve the quality of life for a local area. This flexibility enables community foundations to serve a wider group of potential donors as well as non-profit organizations.

This also gives community foundations certain administrative and investment advantages over other organizations, such as private foundations. Community foundations have the opportunity to treat component funds within their organization as part of a single corporation and maximize their benefit within the community.

Multiply Your Community Impact with Socially Responsible Giving

Donors can give stocks, cash, real estate, business interest or other marketable assets and securities. Just as donors seek to make a social impact in the local community through giving, Three Corners Capital seeks to maximize the social impact of a community foundation’s investments in addition to securing a profitable return. We enable clients to invest their funds into socially impactful initiatives for people and companies all over the world. Three Corners Capital is committed to helping foundation stakeholders use their funds to promote social equity, influence key ESG issues in major companies, and encouraging proactive donor engagement. To find out further about how community foundations are deploying all resources to build community wealth, check out this report from the Democracy Collaborative and this Mission Investors Exchange guide.

Three Corners Capital was founded to maximize both investment planning and social impact for donor advised funds, foundations and other clients. To learn more about the socially responsible topics that community foundation clients can engage with their fund companies about, please check out our people, planet, and profit pages.