To accelerate the growth and leadership of nine small and emerging community foundations in rural areas of California.

Community foundations serve an important and unique role in their communities. They encourage charitable giving by local donors. They identify and support local needs with direct grantmaking and by linking donors and nonprofits. And, they are leaders in their communities, drawing attention and resources to priority community concerns and serving their local nonprofit sector.

Irvine has a long history of partnering with community foundations, and in 2005 we launched the Community Foundations Initiative II (CFI II) to develop philanthropic resources in regions of the state that have been underserved by organized philanthropy. CFI II builds on Irvine’s success with its first Community Foundations Initiative, and it is based on the premise that if a community foundation successfully undertakes a visible and strategic community project, it will raise awareness of the community foundation’s work and increase its credibility among stakeholders. With this increased recognition and simultaneous investments in internal capacity, the community foundation will be able to accelerate growth and increase its ability to better serve the local community.

Structure of the initiative

CFI II is a $10 million, five-year initiative that aims to accelerate the growth and leadership of nine small, but growing, community foundations in rural parts of the state. The initiative has three key components: direct grants to each community foundation for core support and capacity building; an Irvine-funded regranting program to help each community foundation develop skills as a grantmaker; and a robust program of technical assistance. Nine community foundations were selected for CFI II through a competitive application process, and initial three-year grants ranged from $325,000 to $575,000.

Technical assistance has been an integral component of CFI II, and participating community foundations are offered a host of services to mobilize and engage board members, increase visibility in the community, and plan for sustainability. In addition, the entire cohort meets three times a year to hear from outside speakers, learn from one another, and address more deeply the key aspects of growing and sustaining a small community foundation.

Participating community foundations

Technical assistance team

Technical assistance is provided to the CFI II foundations by a team of experienced consultants, including:

Chris Sutherland: designer of group convenings and coach to the learning community
FSG Social Impact Advisors: sustainability planning and evaluation
La Piana Associates: board development
Williams Group: visibility and communications