Building Agency, Belonging and Local Power Through Sport
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.
Energy, Ideas and Renewed Conviction – A Spontaneous Reflection After the 4th Meeting of Community Foundations in Spain
The 2025 Spanish Community Foundations Meeting in Madrid brought together foundations, universities, support organisations and international guests to exchange ideas, strengthen networks and celebrate impact. Over two days of dialogue, reflection and workshops, participants reaffirmed the growing movement in Spain, highlighted the power of collective intelligence, and welcomed the launch of the country’s tenth community foundation —the first in Madrid, the Hortaleza Filanda Community Foundation.
Youth Participation That Works: Lessons from Community Foundation Halle
In this blog Lydia Bökelmann from Halle Community Foundation, Germany, reflects on the experience and lessons from their Youth Participation project.
It set out to test various ways of connecting with
and involving young people. Having explored how to find and connect with young people, the next step was to turn ideas into reality. Lydia concludes
‘Ultimately, it’s about empowering them to navigate these systems and take meaningful action in shaping their community’.
Community Foundations in Ukraine: Resilience in Times of War
Despite the ongoing war, Ukrainian community foundations continue to play a crucial role in supporting local populations, adapting to new
challenges, and fostering resilience. Viktoriia Zablotska from the National Network of Local Philanthropy Development shares insights into their efforts, highlighting the experiences of three foundations operating under extreme conditions.
Seeing is Believing
A study visit delegation of 12 delegates from North Macedonia had a recent excellent learning experience in Romania. Led by Konekt, the support organisation for the community foundation movement in North Macedonia, representatives from 5 local action hubs (LAHs) and their leadership groups had the chance to be inspired by the Romanian experience in development of community foundations and to transfer the knowledge acquired in their own communities. Irina Hadji Mitova, Project Manager, Konekt, summarises what participants took away from their time in Romania.
Local Philanthropy and Community Foundations in European Capital Cities. Challenges and opportunities.
This report explores the challenges and opportunities faced by community foundations in European capital cities, focusing on local development and philanthropy. Drawing on case examples and wider experience brought by participants, it underscores key learnings related to scalability, meaningful partnerships, and social innovation. The exploration of a variety of locally oriented approaches aims to contribute to the promotion of sustainable urban development.
Transformative Learning: A Tale of Two Organisations. CF2CF Exchange Report
This report shares practical insights and inspiring stories from a peer learning exchange between the Romanian Federation of Community Foundation (FFCR) and the Spanish Association of Foundations (AEF). It highlights the transformative power of collaborative learning and offers valuable lessons for community engagement, event-based fundraising, and capacity building. The report also showcases innovative approaches and grantmaking schemes, providing valuable insights.
Lessons form an exchange: Austria – Romania
This report shares insights and inspiring stories from an exchange between Austrian initiative groups and Romanian community foundations. The exchange aimed to accelerate the development of the community foundation field in Austria by learning from successful practitioners in Romania. The report highlights the practical impact of the exchange, including shaping the Austrian community foundation program and launching the first Capacity Building program. It also showcases the innovative approaches and grantmaking schemes adopted by the Romanian community foundations to fund their projects.
Guide to Italian Community Foundations 2nd Edition 2023 ABSTRACT
This abstract introduces the second edition of the Guide to Italian Community Foundations (2023), presenting an overview of the field’s development, scale and diversity. It highlights how community foundations operate across different regional contexts, fulfil varied roles and contribute to addressing social challenges. The guide combines data, practitioner insights and external perspectives to illustrate the added value of community foundations and the importance of networking and support infrastructure in strengthening the movement.
The SDGs Are Good For Us
This workshop report explores how community foundations and their support organisations can use the Sustainable Development Goals as a strategic framework. It presents Northamptonshire Community Foundation’s experience of embedding the SDGs across its vision, strategy, donor engagement, partnerships, community conversations and impact reporting. The report also examines effective partnership models and identifies practical roles for support organisations in building capability, sharing evidence and helping community foundations connect local action with global goals.
