We are there: community foundations in emergency response and recovery
This practice-oriented publication explores how community foundations in Poland, Romania and Spain responded to severe floods in 2024. Through case studies and cross-cutting reflections, it examines how trust, proximity and long-term relationships shaped emergency response and recovery, highlighting the role of community foundations as locally rooted actors that coordinate support, sustain civic infrastructure and navigate difficult choices under pressure.
Culture as a pathway to community transformation: the case of the Raimat Arts Festival
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.
Community Foundations in Europe 2026: The State (and Future) of the Field
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.
Looking Back at 2025: What did this year ask of ECFI and the field?
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.
“Lleida Alimenta: A territorial agrifood movement strengthening community resilience”
In this article, Elena De Carandini, President of Raimat Lleida Community Foundation, shares the community foundation’s role in setting up, convening and lead a participatory initiative, Lleida Alimenta, a territorial agrifood movement strengthening community resilience.
Small actions, big shifts: What can we learn from social tipping points about driving climate action locally?
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.
Impact Investing – from a symbol of the past to a place maker for the future
Officina Badoni offers a compelling example of how a community foundation can redefine impact investing by transforming a disused industrial landmark into an open, collaborative civic hub. The Fondazione Comunitaria del Lecchese chose to invest a quarter of its endowment not for financial return, but to regenerate a shared space where young people, organisations and citizens can work, connect and imagine new futures together. Through a co-design process involving local actors, the building has become a platform for social innovation rather than a real-estate project, already fostering new partnerships, daily community use and a shift in how the Foundation relates to its territory. Ultimately, Officina Badoni shows how investing in places can strengthen community life, turning an “asset question” into a “community question” where the real value lies in people and relationships.
Bridging communities through philanthropy: insights from a study visit to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
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.
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.
The Epiphany of Place
Place-based philanthropy offers a powerful approach to tackling complex local issues and driving systems change. Rather than relying on distant policies, real change may begin within communities themselves. Community foundations, rooted locally, are well-positioned to lead this transformation. This piece was first published on Philea’s website in June 2025.
