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.
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.
Guide to Community Foundations in Serbia
This guide presents the development of community foundations in Serbia and the social, political and economic context in which they operate. It explains Trag Foundation’s movement-building approach and profiles community foundations in Niš, Stara Pazova and Pančevo, highlighting their fundraising, grantmaking, inclusion and community leadership practices. The publication also offers practical recommendations on early grantmaking, matching funds, registration, locally adapted fundraising and peer learning.
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.
From Transaction to Transformation
This blog reflects on discussions from the 2023 UK Community Foundations CEO retreat about the future role of community foundations. It explores how transparency, donor engagement and sustainable giving can move philanthropy beyond transactions towards long-term transformation. The article also highlights climate action, equality-focused grantmaking, rural inequalities, Black leadership, organisational sustainability and the importance of peer learning in helping community foundations respond to complex and changing local needs.
To learn and undestand the SDGs in order to be able to communicate the idea of SDGs and their benefits to FFL members and develop guidelines for including the SDG in the day-to-day activities of FFL and its members
This publication explores how community foundations can use the SDGs as a practical framework for guiding strategy, grantmaking, and community engagement. It highlights that while awareness of the SDGs remains uneven, they offer a powerful tool to connect local action with global challenges. By integrating SDGs into everyday operations—through partnerships, education, and funding priorities—community foundations can strengthen their long-term impact and support more sustainable and inclusive community development.
From SDG Talk to Action
This publication explores how community foundations across Europe are integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into every aspect of their work through a whole-of-organisation approach. It documents ECFI’s collaboration with national support organisations to deliver SDG workshops, examines their impact on community foundations, identifies common challenges and good practices, and presents case studies from across Europe demonstrating how the SDGs can strengthen community leadership, strategy, communications, investment, and organisational development.
Community foundations through and beyond the Covid-19 crisis
Summary and visual harvesting of the presentations and discussion on the challenges and lessons from the establishment and implementation of Covid-19 crisis response and recovery funds – reflects on actions through a 4Cs lens, and sets out proposed next steps
