James Magowan
Senior Advisor
ECFI
This report provides an overview of the community foundation field in Europe in 2026, highlighting its growth, diversity and the pressures it faces. Using a futures thinking lens, it explores how community foundations respond to present challenges, draw on past legacies, and shape more resilient and inclusive local futures.
The Community Foundation Northern Ireland (CFNI) fund development has shifted from “fundraising as a separate function” to “fund development embedded in grantmaking intelligence.” This means that the same people who understand community needs, applications, and grant logistics are also the ones stewarding existing donors and pitching new opportunities, making the proposition more credible, more agile, and easier to deliver.
This report outlines the highlights and the main lessons learned on youth participation and involvement by Mirafiori Community Foundation (Italy) and Local Community Development Foundation, Štip (North Macedonia) within the ECFI P2P Exchange program.
Kathrin Dombrowski
Coordinating Director
ECFI
With an eventful, exciting but also challenging year coming to an end, it’s a good moment to reflect on what this year has asked of the community foundation field, and of ECFI, which exists to support it. In a context of growing pressure on civil society and community foundations, our work this year has been shaped by listening closely, hosting moments of connection and responding alongside our partners. This reflection brings together some of the key themes that emerged from that shared experience.
James Magowan
Senior Advisor
ECFI
Re-thinking approaches to community foundation movement building in the Balkans presents the synthesis of a multi-country action research initiative led by ECFI and partner support organisations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Serbia. The report examines how community foundations are developing under conditions of political pressure, donor dependency, and shrinking civic space. Using the 4Cs framework—capacity, capability, credibility, and connections—it identifies key paradoxes of fragility and resilience, and offers strategic recommendations for consolidating existing foundations, strengthening support organisations, and building a sustainable, trust-based regional movement.
The Re-think National Research Reports – Annex complements the Balkan Re-think synthesis by providing detailed country-level analyses from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Drawing on interviews, desk research, and practitioner insights, the annex explores how community foundations and support organisations navigate fragile civic environments, donor dependency, and limited capacity. It captures national specificities while reinforcing shared patterns around trust-building, local legitimacy, and the critical role of long-term support in transforming emerging initiatives into sustainable community-based institutions.
Kathrin Dombrowski
Coordinating Director
ECFI
Systems at all levels of scale, whether at a national, regional, local, community, or personal level can tip (to a changed state / social norm) and community foundations can help trigger positive local social tipping points. With their knowledge of the local context and dynamics, and their ability to invest in bridging social capital, they are well placed to help build the trust required to adopt and cultivate a positive narrative around agency and change, rather than trying to push transformation prematurely or in a top-down manner. Importantly their understanding of the locality enables them to appreciate a diversity of opinions, concerns and impacts, such that they can work towards locally relevant ‘just transition’. A Positive Tipping Points Toolkit is suggested as a useful way to explore and identify how small, well-placed actions can trigger large, self-reinforcing positive change.
From 27th to 29th October 2025, ECFI brought together 55 people from across Europe, mostly under 35 years old, for the second edition of the ECFI Youth Fest, hosted by the Fondazione di Comunità San Gennaro in Naples, in collaboration with Assifero. This report sums up the insights and ideas emerged.
James Magowan
Senior Advisor
ECFI
In October 2025, the European Community Foundation Initiative (ECFI) brought together community foundation leaders from across Europe for a Resilience Deep Dive in San Sebastiano da Po, Italy. Over three days, participants explored what resilience means for communities, for organisations, and for themselves as individuals. At a time when democratic resilience is being tested across Europe, and its fault lines are increasingly visible at the local level, the conversations quickly moved beyond theory, drawing on lived experience, peer learning, and honest
exchange. Reflections that follow capture the overarching themes and shared insights that emerged.
ECFI, in collaboration with Article Org (AGO), hosted a second conversation on the topic of succession planning, exploring the recent experience of the Agrigento and Trapani Community Foundation. The Foundation’s former Director, Giuseppe La Rocca, stepped down, passing the baton to Viviana Rizzuto. The purpose of the meeting was to shed light on key elements and principles of a succession leadership strategy in the context of community foundations.
