23.06.2025 / Publications
Authors: Ștefan Cibian, Lutz Drieling, Lev Fejes, and Edi Beserman
Executive Summary
The role of Community Foundations (CFs) and Community Foundation Support Organizations (CFSOs) in furthering the SDGs and local sustainability is becoming increasingly relevant. The study builds on the insights from the 2023 report on CFs and the SDGs, aiming to further explore the interconnections between CFs, CFSOs, and the SDGs by examining the role of CFs and CFSOs in ensuring resilience and preparedness in local communities.
Key takeaways from the study include:
– European CFs and CFSOs are increasingly aware of the SDGs and are beginning to recognize the importance of the CF mechanism for ensuring community sustainability.
– CFs and CFSOs are increasingly seeing the importance of sustainability and resilience as they see the consequences of overlapping crises in local communities.
– Despite a significant impact on the sustainability of local communities, including contributions to the SDGs, CFs are not globally recognized, requiring more efforts to show the relevance of the CF model for global audiences, including national governments and the United Nations (UN).
– CFs and CFSOs continue to struggle with localizing the SDGs, given that the SDGs were not conceived for local community actors, but for national governments, and that the language at the core of the SDGs is foreign to most local communities in Europe.
– Several CFs across Europe engage with the topic of preparedness and resilience, indicating an emergent practice in supporting local communities to be better positioned in cases of disasters and emergencies.
– CFs, and especially CFSOs, become increasingly aware of the importance of partnerships and tools such as foresight for their practice and local communities. Several of the recent CFSO events in Europe had a focus on foresight.
– Despite recent experiences and certain advancements, CFs continue to underestimate the importance of global challenges for their local communities, although, in practice, they are engaged in countering the manifestations of global challenges in local communities.
While there exists a constant engagement with data harvesting and research, not least through Vital Signs and contributions to the SDGs, CFs and CFSOs are exposing an incipient practice in exploring the importance of a research mindset for their work and impact in local communities.
This study was written during the project “Increasing the Contribution of European Community Foundations to the SDGs,” supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. We are grateful to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and all interviewees and partners who made the development of the case study possible.
Departments: Community Foundations & SDGs; Society, Crisis, and Resilience Program; Policy Analysis and Outreach Department; Center on Global Affairs and Post Development, Research Department; Făgăraș Research Institute Publishing House.
Regions: Europe.
Themes: Sustainable Development Goals; Cities; Civic Engagement; Civil Society; Philanthropy and Community Development; European Union; International Development.