The Spanish community foundation movement, international representatives of community foundations, funders, partners & universities gathered together for AEF's annual conference. What emerged was much more than the annual gathering of Spain’s community foundation movement. It became a moment to take stock of how far the movement has come and, perhaps more importantly, where it is heading.
Camilla Stenhaug & Martin Dahl
CEO & Former CEO
Gl. Skanderborg Fonden & Frederiksbergfonden
The debate about community foundations reveals a broader issue: Denmark lacks a comprehensive understanding of the place-based foundations that are already contributing to the development of local communities across the country.
This piece was originally published by Camilla Stenhaug, CEO of Gl. Skanderborg Fonden, and Martin Dahl, former CEO of Frederiksbergfonden in Danish on Filantropi - Udgivet af Danmarks Fonde Aps
In Raimat, a small rural community in Lleida with a deep agricultural legacy, culture has become a powerful tool for transformation. When Raimat Lleida Community Foundation was established in 2022, its aim was to connect legacy, land, and community to generate real positive impact. Since then, the Raimat Arts Festival has become the cultural project that best embodies this vision.
The second meeting of our ECFI Fund Development Learning Journey focused its attention on legacy funds - wills and bequests - and what community foundations can do to make them a strategic asset in their development. This report summarises the insights, lessons learned, and experiences emerged during the conversation.
Silvia Mayrhofer
Project Manager Community Foundations in Austria
For several years, the Association for Charitable Foundations (Verband für gemeinnütziges Stiften - VgS), Austria’s national CFSO, supported by the Mott Foundation, has been running a support programme for community foundation initiatives. The Community Foundation Mühlviertel, the first foundation to emerge from this programme, is now beginning its operational work.
Sport can be a powerful catalyst for individual and local development, and an effective lever for addressing complex community challenges. Across Europe, community foundations are investing in sport and sporting facilities as a strategy for strengthen individuals’ agency, particularly among young people, while fostering community building, and participation.
Kathrin Dombrowski & James Magowan
ECFI
Community foundation support organisations (CFSOs) are sometimes described as the scaffolding of our field - the structures that hold networks together and help movements grow. But during this year’s CFSO gathering in Vienna on 24–25 November, another metaphor felt far more fitting: CFSOs as the plumbing of the philanthropy ecosystem. Not the most glamorous image, perhaps. But stay with us. Read Kathrin Dombroski and James Magowan collective insights that emerged during the ECFI 2025 CFSOs meeting.
In 2019, Community Foundation Wales initiated a community consultation process to better understand the needs of its grantees. The results were strikingly consistent: the main concern was short-term, project-related funding, which prevented them from focusing on and delivering their mission. The foundation responded swiftly by reviewing its funding strategy to include support for core costs and for multi-year funding. In this interview, Andrea Powell, Director of Programmes (and Deputy Chief Executive), shares the organisation’s journey, the challenges it has faced, and the opportunities ahead.
In July representatives from Local Action Hubs (prospective community foundations) from North Macedonia, along with the support organisation, Association Konekt, took part in a study visit to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. They engaged with the Trag Foundation, foundation leaders, community members, and local stakeholders to learn from diverse models of grassroots action explored how community foundations are driving local development, fostering civic engagement, and cultivating a culture of philanthropy. Below Nikola
Trajkovski, Programme Associate, Association Konekt reflects on a deeply emotional, intellectual and transformative experience.
Kathrin Dombrowski
Coordinating Director
ECFI
The European Forum Alpbach is a unique place where reflection meets action. It brings together young people alongside leaders from politics, business, civil society, and science to shape ideas for a stronger democratic Europe. At this year’s forum, Kathrin Dombrowski, Coordinating Director at ECFI, contributed the perspective of community foundations. In this article, she shares her key takeaways from a two-day workshop exploring how philanthropy can embrace system change approaches.
