Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global phenomenon with 1700 existing around the world, of which over 700 are in the United States. Private foundations are typically endowed by an individual or a single family.
24-519: The Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF) is one of the largest community foundations in the United States. Headquartered in Tulsa , Oklahoma , as of January 2011 it was reported to have approximately four billion dollars in assets, and to have donated more than $ 580 million to local charities and government projects. Tulsa Community Foundation is a tax-exempt, public charity organized in 1998. It
48-470: A city or administrative area (county, region and the like). The six main characteristics of the CFs are: It is a combination of all these basic characteristics what makes true CF, although there are many other types of community organizations that have some of these characteristics. Families, individuals, businesses, and nonprofit groups establish funds within community foundations into which they can contribute
72-439: A combined $ 154.3 million in 2013 from the settlement and tobacco taxes. Critics cite Kansas politicians' decisions to divert the state's share of the tobacco lawsuit settlement away from tobacco-use prevention and mitigation towards completely unrelated activity, particularly to plug shortfalls in the state budget and facilitate tax cuts. Kansas Department of Health and Education former spokeswoman Miranda Steele has countered that
96-566: A variety of assets to be used for charitable purposes. The people or organizations that establish the funds can then recommend that grants be distributed, in the name of the fund or anonymously, to qualified nonprofit groups and schools. In the USA the donor receives a charitable tax deduction in the year that gifts are made into their funds, but not all countries where community foundations currently operate provide such incentives for donors. Increasingly, community foundations are hosting giving circles as
120-402: A way to further support giving in their communities. The assets of community foundations are pooled and invested, with donors typically having a choice of investment products. The funds established at community foundations can be non-endowed or expendable funds (i.e., the corpus of the fund can be spent in its entirety) or they can be endowed, which limit distributions to the interest earned on
144-586: A wide range of approaches. For instance, it has funded warm clothing for schoolchildren, currently funds public health research and data, and attempts to develop future civic and healthcare leaders. With over $ 500 million in net assets, the KHF is one of the nation's wealthiest such foundations. In 1985, the Wesley Medical Center , in Wichita, Kansas, one of Kansas' largest hospitals, was sold to
168-502: Is led by President and CEO Steve Coen and Board of Director Chairwoman Commissioner Shelly Buhler. KHF operates out of its custom-built $ 9-million downtown multi-story glass building at 309 E. Douglas, in Wichita, Kansas (zip 67202), since the building's completion in 2013. The facility is shared with some of the KHF's affiliate entities, including the Kansas Leadership Center. Little clear and detailed information
192-418: Is readily available online about the correlation between Kansas health changes and KHF-backed programs. Citing the website America’s Health Rankings (an annual report published by major philanthropic organizations and health groups), the KHF concedes that Kansas fell from the 8th to the 27th healthiest state in the country, during the years 1991 through 2014, when KHF programs were well underway. According to
216-468: The 2014 KIDS COUNT Data Book, by the Annie E. Casey Foundation —the leading reference on child health and welfare in the U.S.—Kansas ranked 15th among the 50 states in overall child well-being. (NOTE: Earlier data was not readily available). Tobacco use (particularly cigarette smoking) is Kansas' top cause of preventable death and disease, with one of every five Kansas adults smoking cigarettes. However,
240-594: The Foundation Center website, the top five largest community foundations, by assets, were: Statistics made available by the Foundation Center enable also financial comparison of the largest community foundations with the largest corporate and private foundations and illustrate the fact that community foundations in the United States tend to be larger than corporate foundations in both assets and grants given. There are 46 Community Foundations in
264-609: The Grand Victoria Foundation supports development of Illinois community foundations. The Kansas Health Foundation operates a similar program in Kansas communities. There are 191 community foundations in Canada, accessible to more than 90% of Canadian communities. The Winnipeg Foundation was Canada's first community foundation, established in 1921. According to the latest data available, from October 2014, on
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#1732779567662288-443: The KHF largely blames this on decisions by Kansas legislators and governors to underfund tobacco prevention, making Kansas (in 2013) 41st in the nation for per-capita spending on tobacco prevention. In 2013, the federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that states spend $ 32.1 million annually on tobacco prevention, but Kansas was only funding such programs at $ 946,671 per year, despite collecting
312-610: The UK and UK Community Foundations (formerly the Community Foundation Network ) acts as an umbrella organisation for some of them. Kansas Health Foundation The Kansas Health Foundation ( KHF ) is a nonprofit organization based in Wichita, Kansas , U.S., but is statewide in its focus and grantmaking abilities. Its mission is to improve public health and wellness throughout Kansas . Through grantmaking,
336-614: The actual amounts given for public charity, and for potentially allowing the donors to have effective control of the community foundation. Because the Tulsa Community Foundation (unlike some private foundations) is not restricted from making gifts to government agencies, it has also drawn occasional comment and criticism for its potential influence on local government. Community foundation Community foundations are independent registered philanthropic institutions serving geographically defined territory, typically
360-693: The assets and/or the amount granted by the foundation as long as the corpus is not spent. Endowments last in perpetuity due to the corpus never being able to be spent. The first community foundation was set up in Cleveland in 1914 by Frederick Goff and operates now as The Cleveland Foundation . Others soon followed including the California Community Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust . The first Community Foundation in Canada, The Winnipeg Foundation ,
384-713: The for-profit Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) by the hospital's founder/owner, the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church . The sale’s profits ($ 265 million) were used to fund two organizations focused on improving health in Kansas: Over the years, the foundation has helped start the: The KHF has partnered with over 40 other Kansas community foundations , organizations and programs, largely to help fund and promote health and wellness improvement efforts throughout
408-492: The foundation the largest philanthropic entity in the state, according to KHI Pres. Steven Coen, and making it one of the nation's wealthiest such foundations, according to its official website. The foundation funds programs with the interest earned from investments of the original endowment, preserving it as a perpetual funding source. In 2012, it issued over $ 22.9 million in grants, and by then it had issued over $ 500 million in grants since its origins in 1985. The foundation
432-563: The foundation works to "improve the health of all Kansans by promoting health and wellness in schools, neighborhoods and workplaces; to grow leaders in communities; inspire decision makers; and act as a voice for healthy public policy in Kansas for generations." The KHF (originally the Wesley Medical Endowment Foundation ) has shifted from its original focus on medical cures, instead switching predominantly towards preventive solutions for public health. It uses
456-449: The health of all Kansans, the KHF quickly became one of the 40 largest grantmaking foundations in the United States, and it ranked as one of the top 10 U.S. healthcare foundations. Growing from the original $ 200 million endowment, the foundation reportedly had $ 440 million in assets in 2010, to $ 469 million in assets by the end of 2012. Assets topped $ 475 million, by May 2013, ultimately reaching $ 519 million in net assets in 2013, making
480-585: The joint Kansas Public Health Workforce Development Coordinating Council —to fund, develop and coordinate public health workforce training through various educational methodologies, delivery methods and opportunities. Examples have included: In 2014, the KHF—operating through its KHF Fellows program—began looking into the links between mental illness and tobacco-related death, asserting that 26% of Kansas smokers suffered from some sort of mental illness. With an initial $ 200 million endowment to focus on improving
504-660: The largest until 2013, when a $ 1 billion contribution lifted the Silicon Valley Community Foundation into first place. Kaiser's family foundation remains the largest contributor to the community foundation, which also manages about 600 donor advised funds . In 2005, members of the United States Senate Committee on Finance , and others, criticized the foundation structure of TCF, and other charities, for arguably permitting givers to take tax deductions out of proportion to
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#1732779567662528-497: The state. In 1997, the KHF focused more specifically on children's health. Partnering with the state's largest advertising agency, Sullivan, Higdon, Sink , the KHF developed the "Take It Outside" campaign to urge adults to avoid smoking in homes and buildings where children are present. The KHF later became heavily involved with Kansas state government, and universities, and local governments in Kansas—particularly through
552-584: Was established in Winnipeg in 1921. Since the 1980s, a number of private foundations in the United States have created initiatives to develop community foundations in various states. One of the earliest such initiatives was in Michigan. In Indiana, the Lilly Endowment funded a program that has spurred development of community foundations in each of the state's 92 counties. On a smaller scale,
576-496: Was founded by Tulsa oilman, banker, and philanthropist George Kaiser , who felt that Tulsa's historical dependence on unorganized private giving from its wealthy families was no longer effective. Beginning with gifts from seventeen local philanthropists, by 2006 Tulsa Community Foundation had grown to become the largest community foundation in the country, surpassing the New York Community Trust , and it remained
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