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.
Making the Case and Being a Voice for Community Foundations
This brief sums up the insights from the online discussion, that ECFI hosted, about the distinctive role of CFSOs and CFs in advocacy. The conversation has been framed around three interconnected dimensions of advocacy: visibility; operating environment and addressing issues/topics.
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.
Is there space for community philanthropy within the Portuguese civil society landscape?
This piece reflects on how community foundations in Southeast Europe are strengthening local ecosystems by acting as intermediaries between citizens, donors, and institutions. It highlights the importance of trust-building, adaptive support, and long-term presence in contexts where civic infrastructure is still developing, showing how even small-scale initiatives can catalyse broader community engagement and local philanthropy.
PEX Philanthropy Resilience Building
This storybook captures reflections from a series of scenario-thinking sessions exploring how philanthropy support organisations can strengthen resilience in uncertain contexts. Through visual insights and collective reflection, it highlights the importance of collaboration, adaptive leadership and ecosystem thinking. The publication encourages readers to engage with possible futures and consider how philanthropy can move beyond reactive responses towards more strategic, systemic and collaborative approaches.
ECFI Guide: Community Foundations Support Organisations and National Champions in Europe
The 2018 ECFI Survey on Community Foundation Support Organizations and National Champions provides the first comprehensive mapping of Europe’s community philanthropy infrastructure. It identifies 22 active support organizations and over 790 community foundations across 27 countries. Despite limited capacity, support organizations play a vital role in professionalisation, leadership development, and advocacy, helping the movement grow strategically. The report highlights their contribution to peer learning, research, and cross-border collaboration—showing how ECFI strengthens this ecosystem to build a dynamic and connected European community foundation movement.
