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The Relativity of Foundation Effectiveness: The Case of Community Foundations

Urban Institute Center

This article proposes that efforts to understand and achieve greater foundation effectiveness would be advanced by expanding the discussion to be more attuned to the relative and context-dependent nature of effectiveness. It illustrates this point through an analysis of community foundation effectiveness and comparisons of community foundations with private foundations. The findings show that effectiveness does not—and cannot—mean the same thing for community and private foundations because of their different contexts. The article further proposes that community foundations would strengthen their ability to address current challenges by developing a clearer and more realistic definition of effectiveness rooted in their distinctive mission and community context. The article is based on survey data from 236 community foundations and 853 private ones and interviews with chief executive officers and trustees of 21 community foundations.

Key Words: community foundations • effectiveness • foundations • philanthropy

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