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26.06.2023 / Case studies

Authors: Stefan Cibian Ph.D. and Lutz Drieling

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UK Community Foundations (UKCF), the British Community Foundation Support Organization (CFSO), engages with Agenda 2030 at a strategic level. UKCF enables its community foundation members to use the SDG language and connect global priorities with local challenges. UKCF SDG-related activities include learning experiences for UK community foundations, sharing best practices, and improving communication of impact both on local and national levels.

About UK Community Foundations

UKCF supports 47 accredited community foundations (CF). It is the 4^th largest funder with over £1bn distributed grants and £76m of Emergencies Trust funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.¹ It was founded as the Community Foundation Network in 1991 and relaunched as the UK Community Foundations in 2013.² Besides UK community foundations, the Network includes three community foundations from Jersey, Bermuda, and Ireland.³

The UKCF has a board of 13 trustees, and its staff consists of 18 members.⁴ Its 2022 charity income was £6,712,000, with £434,000 in investment gains. The expenditure was £8,000,000. 32% of the income comes from membership fees community foundations pay based on their endowments. The entire network of community foundations has a total endowment of £741 million. The endowment of the UKCF was £5.9 million on March 31, 2022.⁵

UKCF aims to give people access to a community foundation within their reach. CFs identify local needs and contribute to community improvement by encouraging “philanthropy, sustainable charitable funding, and local partnerships.”⁶ In addition to leadership and national advocacy, UKCF offers training and resources to CFs to support their local communities. UKCF also implements national programs carried out by community foundations to deliver a widescale positive impact.⁷

Besides its annual reports dating back to 2016,⁸ UKCF publishes reports on different aspects of its work.⁹ One example is the 2021 report titled Thinking globally, acting locally: How community foundations are contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.¹⁰ This report gives insight into UKCF’s work and emphasizes community foundations’ importance in fulfilling Agenda 2030.

UK Community Foundations work on the SDGs

Aligning the work of community foundations with Agenda 2030 is one of the key focus areas of the UKCF. Since 2020 UKCF has been sharing knowledge on how community foundations can interact with the SDGs. Through continued support from the European Community Foundation Initiative (ECFI),¹¹ community foundations have started translating the SDGs into their local contexts. Since 2021 UKCF has offered training and discussions within its network on aligning CF’s action with the SDGs.¹² Furthermore, the 2022 UKCF Conference focused entirely on the SDGs. All sessions and workshops approached different aspects of the SDGs.

Besides engaging with the SDGs in general, UKCF is making steps towards working with individual Goals. UKCF is a member of the Mitigating Climate Change and Foundation Platform 20, which urges governments to act against climate change.¹³

UKCF is aware of the issues community foundations face in engaging with Agenda 2030. One challenging aspect is the need for more resources to align their work with the SDGs. Implementing the SDGs within the UKCF work is also perceived as complex. However, slowly, everyone starts to follow the same structure and use the language and framework of the SDGs.¹⁴ Donors increasingly understand the SDG language. UKCF observes a shift from ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) towards social peace and SDGs. This shift makes it easier for the CFSOs and CFs to start partnerships with corporations and acquire new donors.¹⁵

Community foundations include the SDGs within their strategies and align them with their investments and activities. Next to grantmaking, the language of the SDGs is increasingly used by community foundations to communicate Agenda 2030 to their communities. UK community foundations discuss various approaches to address the SDGs with companies, individual donors, and local community groups.¹⁶

The UKCF sees how the SDGs are bringing people together. The SDGs can unify efforts from organizations working on common challenges and enhance their impact.  The UKCF does not perceive the SDGs as the main driver for their work but rather as an additional piece of the puzzle that gives meaning to community actions.

UKCF includes the SDGs within its data collection mechanism for capturing community foundations’ activities and impact.¹⁷ Translated into local indicators, the SDGs offer community foundations a starting point to analyze their actions and measure their impact. A standardized approach to impact assessment is critical since smaller community foundations cannot compare their efforts and impact with larger community foundations like the one in London. The SDGs offer, therefore, a framework for directing work and resources towards local challenges.¹⁸

Example of CFs engagement with the SDGs in the UKCF context

Given the work of UKCF and ECFI on engaging UK community foundations with the SDGs, several CFs responded positively to the challenge. Below we include a few such examples.

Northamptonshire Community Foundations (NCF) is one of the SDG leaders in the European community foundations movement. NCF has taken multiple steps to connect the work of the Foundation with Agenda 2030 meaningfully. NCF agreed on ambassadors for the goals from among the Foundation’s team.  In Rachel McGrath’s words, “[w]e have taken a slightly unique approach in which all of our staff and trustees are global Goals ambassadors. So, I am an ambassador for UN SDG #16, peace, justice, and strong institutions. We have a whole toolkit that we take out to community forums.” Furthermore, NCF re-conceived its strategy alongside grantmaking, finance, communications, and other internal processes of the Community Foundation to reflect the SDGs.¹⁹

The Leeds Community Foundation (Leeds CF) selected, together with its trustees, five SDGs that best capture their work. Strategic focus helped identify local challenges and solutions and augment project impact. The Leeds CF also included the SDGs within its grantmaking calls. Leeds CF will focus more on climate change actions alongside other SDG-relevant work areas in the future.²⁰

In its 2021 Vital Signs Report, The Community Foundation of Tyne & Wear and Northumberland focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and, more specifically, on Women, people with physical disabilities, Ethnic minority communities, LGBTQIA+, and people with learning disabilities. Through its active participation with members of the communities and engagement with the SDGs, the Community Foundation identified an essential need for more decisive actions toward SDG 10.²¹

Foundation Scotland integrated the SDGs into its ten-year strategic plan (Strategic Plan 2030)²². This plan is an impact framework aligned with the SDGs. It helps the Community Foundation to analyze its grantmaking and move endowment into impact investment funds, which focus on the SDGs. Thus, donors can have an impact by investing in the Community Foundation’s endowment and companies that contribute to the SDGs. This lighthouse project raised the interest of British and European community foundations in this new approach towards Agenda 2030.²³

Conclusion

UK Community Foundations is bringing together 47 Community Foundations in the United Kingdom. With over £1bn distributed grants, the UK community foundations are the 4^th largest funder in the UK. UKCF supports community foundation efforts in engaging with Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. Next to providing training on the SDGs, UKCF is regularly publishing resources, exchanging best practices, and facilitating discussions on how CFs can align themselves with the SDGs. The UKCF has several members that provide good examples of aligning their work with Agenda 2030. UKCF is also an example of how to encourage community foundations to strengthen their impact through the SDGs, contributing to more sustainable local communities.

Endnotes

1. “The national voice for local communities” (UK Community Foundations),
2. “Community foundations in the UK” (UK Community Foundations),
3. “Our international members” (UK Community Foundations),
4. Charity Commission for England and Wales, UK Community Foundations 2022
5. “REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022” (UK Community Foundations, 2022), p.4ff
6. “Our vision, purpose and mission” (UK Community Foundations)
7. UK Community Foundations, “Our vision, purpose and mission.”
8. “Anual Reports” (UK Community Foundations)
9. “Publications” (UK Community Foundations)
10. Kezia Jackson-Harman et al., “Thinking globally, acting locally: How community foundations are contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” (UK Community Foundations, 2021),
11. Access at
12. “Sustainable Development Goals” (UK Community Foundations),
13. UK Community Foundations,
14. Rosemary Macdonald, Rosemary Macdonald, FRI Roundtable: Exploring the potential of CFs for strengthening UN’s Agenda 2030, April 12, 2023.
15. Rosemary Macdonald, FRI Roundtable: Exploring the potential of CFs for strengthening UN’s Agenda 2030, April 12, 2023.
16. UK Community Foundations, “Susainable Development Goals.”
17. Rosemary Macdonald, FRI Roundtable: Exploring the potential of CFs for strengthening UN’s Agenda 2030, April 12, 2023.
18. Rosemary Macdonald, FRI Roundtable: Exploring the potential of CFs for strengthening UN’s Agenda 2030, April 12, 2023.
19. Rachel McGrath, FRI Roundtable: Exploring the potential of CFs for strengthening UN’s Agenda 2030, April 12, 2023.
20. Rosemary Macdonald, FRI Roundtable: Exploring the potential of CFs for strengthening UN’s Agenda 2030, April 12, 2023.
21. Jackson-Harman et al., “Thinking globally, acting locally:”, p. 7
22. Access at
23. Jackson-Harman et al., “Thinking globally, acting locally:.”, p.11.

This case study was developed as a part of 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: Policy Analysis and Outreach Department, Research Department, Center on Global Affairs and Post Development, Society, Crisis, and Resilience Program

Regions: Europe

Themes: Philanthropy and Community Development, Civil Society, Democracy, and Democratization, Sustainable Development Goals