Beginning in 2023, the Aspen Institute Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation (PSI) worked with a cohort of 10 community foundation leaders to learn how they are moving from a traditional community bank model to leverage their full range of assets and relationships to support thriving, inclusive communities.  

In a new report, Evolving the Community Foundation Business Model of the Future: A Path Towards Sustainability and Impact, Kresge American Cities Program Managing Director Chantel Rush Tebbe shares that community foundations are “quarterbacks” who can play a unique role of documenting community challenges and priorities, convening, helping to set a civic agenda, and then pulling together the funders and cross-sector actors required to make things happen on the ground. 

The report focuses on four areas of business model experimentation:  

1. Bringing donors in closer alignment with community impact goals 
2. Fee restructuring to generate financial returns and mission alignment 
3. Moving beyond grantmaking to leverage capital for community impact 
4. Partnerships to unlock revenue and impact 

The report, supported by Kresge, also includes seven technical and adaptive recommendations to help community foundations meet the call to be more people-centered, civically engaged institutions.    

PSI hopes these new practices, structures, partnerships, and ideas will be learning tools or sources of inspiration for the field. The report is a starting point for deeper research, conversation, and learning that will contribute to more resilient and thriving communities across the country.