Established in 1991, Community Foundation Network is the national network linking, promoting and supporting nearly 60 community foundations across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Community foundations are charities throughout the UK dedicated to strengthening local communities, creating opportunities and tackling issues of disadvantage and exclusion. Community foundations target grants that make a genuine difference to the lives of local people. They manage funds donated by individuals and organisations, building endowment and acting as the vital link between donors and local needs, connecting people with causes, and enabling clients to achieve far more than they could ever by themselves.

Community foundations allow donors to specify how, where and over what period of time their money is spent. Gifts of cash, shares, trusts, bequests and property are pooled in multipurpose endowment funds, creating a capital sum whose earnings address donors' specific interests.

The first community foundation was established in Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1914. Since then, at least 700 have been established in the United States alone where they serve tens of thousands of donors and administer more than $31 billion in charitable funds.

At least 51 countries now have community foundations, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Mexico and South Africa, as well as the USA and the UK. There are at least 1,440 community foundations worldwide.

The first UK community foundations appeared in the late 1970s. By 2010 there were 59, of which 45 are quality accredited. Over 98% of the UK population has access to one. Find other Community Foundations in the UK.

Community foundations are unique mechanisms for giving to charity. Their flexibility and personalised services allow donors to specify how, where and over what time period their money is spent. Community foundations offer an opportunity to channel help towards meeting local needs and allow donors to see tangible results in their local community.

By March 2010, community foundations held over £224.5 million in committed endowed giving. Community foundations offer a variety of funds: examples include a general fund for their area, plus several others funds for specific purposes, such as women's funds, community arts funds or health funds.

All community foundations aim to become self-financing. Community foundations charge major donors for the grant-making done on their behalf. Donors agree that this costs less than the time and money that doing this work themselves would involve. Many foundations have members who pay an annual subscription towards running costs and/or do local fundraising.

Some foundations have built up an administrative endowment to produce a stream of income, usually from donors who want to fund the development of philanthropy itself. In the initial stages of development, foundations often receive help from other charitable trusts that support the community foundation model and are keen to see a revival of this kind of philanthropy.

CFN is a strategic partner of the Office for Civil Society, taking an active role in its programme to expand charitable giving.

Many community foundations in England were local funders for Grassroots Grants, a £130 million government programme running from 2008 to 2011. It consisted of a £130 million endowment challenge (with the government doubling or trebling donations) and an £80 million small grants fund. The endowment challenge created a lasting pot of funding.

Many community foundations have previously managed government funds such as Local Network Fund, Neighbourhood Renewal Unit community chests, or funds from the European Social Fund. Several MPs and ex-MPs, including some senior politicians, are involved in their local community foundations. For example, Tony Blair is the Vice President of County Durham Foundation and has set up his own foundation, the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, managed by the County Durham Foundation

Around £70 million a year. Many community foundations distribute well over £1 million in grants a year. Over £400 million has been distributed in grants by community foundations in the last five years. Combined, community foundations are one of the largest non-government grant-making bodies in the UK.

Giving through a community foundation means you are giving locally and making a long-lasting impact. It is a convenient, cost-effective, simple and flexible form of giving. Community foundations are accountable for the grants they make and can advise you on tax-effective ways of giving.

As a potential donor, picking your way round the charitable world can be a difficult task. Who, what, where or how do you wish to help? This is where community foundations help, with their in-depth knowledge of local communities.

Community foundations make corporate giving hassle-free and straightforward. They are ideally placed to help companies wishing to demonstrate commitment and involvement in their local community. Companies can outsource their in-house Corporate Social Responsibility function to their local community foundation and benefit from the efficiency, impact on staff motivation and recognition of giving locally.

Community foundations work with a wide variety of donors - individuals, families, businesses, charitable trusts and statutory bodies - with a broad range of means.

Donations vary widely in size and form, including gifts of cash, trusts, bequests, shares or property. Donors can direct their funds to a favourite cause, organisation or specific geographical area. Donations can be pooled into themed funds to address a particular issue. A donation to a general endowment can be used more flexibly to make grants for a broad range of local activities.

All donations whether large or small, repeat or one-off are welcome. Small donations are pooled in general funds, or can build toward a larger Named Fund. Advice on tax effective giving is also available. Some foundations run Acorn funds when you give a small amount each month to build up to your own fund.

The main ways are by using Gift Aid, giving shares or property, leaving a legacy or by joining a payroll giving scheme. You can get advice on tax effective giving appropriate to your particular circumstances from your local community foundation or from your own financial adviser.

Many donors have found establishing a fund at a community foundation a straightforward and convenient alternative to setting up their own charitable trust.

Find out how to establish a Named Fund.

Community foundations are the ideal product for financial advisers, solicitors and accountants with clients wishing to give.

Local community groups and voluntary organisations.

A board of trustees, drawn from all sectors of the local community, governs community foundations' grant-making. Community foundations also draw on expert advice from the community by involving volunteers in grants committees. Comprehensive grant-making policies and procedures, combined with extensive knowledge and understanding of the local community and its needs, ensure grants are targeted responsibly and carefully.

Community foundations grant-making programmes vary according to donors’ wishes and the needs of the communities they serve.

There are no deadlines as such - most meetings are held every three months but we would expect as application to be submitted to us 4 - 6 weeks prior to the meeting. There will be regular updates on Facebook and Twitter but please contact the Foundation if your project is time critical.

It can take up to three months for your application to be processed and we will endeavour to give you an estimated decision date during the assessment stage.

The Foundation will strive to ensure that your application is taken to the most appropriate fund for your group's needs and location. Each application will be judged on its own merit and success rates are dependant on the number of applications received and the amount of funds available to distribute at the meeting. Therefore there is no guarantee that you will be fully awarded but the panel will always strive to make a contribution where possible.

If the group has yet to receive their grant please call us on 01773 514850.

The most common reasons for groups not having received their award is ;
a) The group has not returned their signed grant agreement (yellow document). The finance team cannot release any award without this piece of paperwork.

b) The group has not sent in or met the conditions of grant listed on the award letter. Some groups will need to supply certain pieces of information before a grant can be released. These will be listed on your award letter under the heading 'conditions of grant' please read this carefully to ensure you have cleared up any outstanding issues.

The grant agreement (yellow document) you signed as part of releasing your grant informs you that you have one year from the date awarded to spend the grant in full, unless otherwise stated.

Call the grants team straight away on 01773 514850 and let us know why you have had problems with spending the grant. We can usually be very flexible and dependent on the circumstances can offer extensions to your grant period. If you require an extension we will send you an extension request form. Once you have completed and returned the form to us we will write to you to confirm your new grant end date. As with any paperwork relating to your grant, keep the letter and a copy of the extension request form in a safe place.

Yes we would very much like it if you could mention both Derbyshire Community Foundation and the fund name you acquired the grant from.This helps other groups find out about Derbyshire Community Foundation so they too can benefit, it also allows our fund donors to see their money at work. We automatically send you a paragraph to use when speaking to the media and logos for any publicity material. This is sent when your grant agreement is released to the finance team.

Please send us a copy of any newspaper articles your grant is mentioned in.

Yes, we will only have correspondence details for the individual who originally applied as the main contact for your group. If this person leaves or moves you must call us straight away on 01773 514850 so we can start the process of changing the details on our systems. If the details are not changed we will possibly be sending out important information that may not reach your group.

Call the grants team straight away on 01773 514850 and let us know how much you have left and why. We can usually be very flexible and dependent on the circumstances can offer you a chance to use the under spend on another item / heading in your original application budget. If you have an under spend we will send you an under spend request form, here you can explain what you would like to use your under spend on. Once you have completed and returned the form to us we will check your original file and write to you to confirm that you can spend the money on the items you wrote down. As with any paperwork relating to your grant, keep the letter and a copy of under spend request form in a safe place. You will need this when completing your monitoring.

If monitoring is not returned we will presume there has been no spend and will ask for the funding to be sent back to Derbyshire Community Foundation. Groups who do not return monitoring will not receive any further funding from Derbyshire Community Foundation. The Foundation has strong links with other funders both locally and regionally and will share information about groups who do not account for funding.

It is important that you keep all receipts related to your grant in one place. We would always recommend accounting for each grant you receive separately, recording the original income and then recording each piece of expenditure against your original budget headings so you can see if you are on track. When you send us your end of grant report we will ask to see original receipts and invoices for items over £500, however when checking your report we may ask to see further invoices.

New forms can be e-mailed or posted to the group on request. We would recommend keeping all paperwork including a copy of your original application, all letters to and from the Foundation, your award pack ( award letter, one grant agreement & monitoring) in one labelled file. This should be kept either in your office base or with the main application contact.

It is possible that members of the grants team will visit you during the life of the grant or after. We will always write to you and call to confirm a suitable date and time and let you know what we will need to see (usually accounts, bank statements and receipts). Monitoring visits are informal and a chance to see how your project has gone and to talk about your plans for the future.

You can make changes to your original plans and budget but you have to inform us and acquire written permission before proceeding. Please contact us to talk about what you would like to change and why on 01773 514850. We will then send you a change of expenditure form for you to complete. Return this to us and we will check your plans against your original application and decide if your proposal is acceptable. We will then inform you of our decision by writing to you. As with any paperwork relating to your grant keep the letter and a copy of the change of expenditure request form in a safe place as you will need this when completing your monitoring.