A community foundation is a philanthropic vehicle that combines the charitable gifts of many to provide leadership and financial leverage in addressing the current and future needs of the community through various grant making activities designed to improve the lives of the citizens of that community.

A community foundation is usually either a trust, a series of trusts or a not-for-profit corporation designed to bring an efficiency of scale to multiple donors with multiple interests yet bound by a common thread of philanthropic intent to benefit a specific area or region. Typically, a community foundation is governed by a Board of Directors or Trustees that works to match the resources of their foundation to the changing needs of their community.

The first community foundation was established by Frederick Goff in Cleveland in 1914. Goff, a trust banker, realized the value of creating endowments to benefit future citizens of his community.

Presently, there are over four hundred community foundations serving cities, towns and geographic areas all over the United States. Texas has community foundations serving Dallas, Houston, Ft. Worth, Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene, El Paso, San Antonio, Midland, Corpus Christi, Waco, Longview and Austin.

For more information,  Email the ACF or call 512.472.4483.