Over the past decade, global philanthropic leaders have often considered how to transform the community foundation field into a “movement” in more than name only.

Significant differences in terms of age, staff numbers and assets have made it difficult to identify common causes and concerns. It has been particularly challenging to foster a dialogue—to say nothing of collaboration—between community foundations in the West and those working in the emerging economies of Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and other parts of the Global South. The former tend to be well established and resource-rich. Though often possessed of abundant resourcefulness and social capital, the latter are generally younger and less developed organizationally and financially.

The Community Foundation Atlas was conceived in part to help build a sense of solidarity by interpreting the field to its members. Seeking hard data about the commonalities and—yes—divergences that characterize the world’s place-based foundations and other community philanthropies, the atlas project partners undertook an international survey that has yielded the single most comprehensive dataset about community foundations ever assembled.

Having assessed the data supplied by the first 478 survey respondents, representing place-based philanthropies in 52 countries, the Community Foundation Atlas is able to present a much “flatter” picture of the field. While documenting organizational and regional diversity, analysis of the data has also helped to clarify the movement’s “essence.” For example, survey questions measuring endowment values, grantmaking budgets and the like confirm that financial metrics are not distinguishing characteristics. It is the common “texture” of community foundation work, into which the survey delved at length, that makes this a dynamic, if still not fully fledged movement.

Exploring the work from multiple angles, the survey included questions about programmatic priorities, provision of nongrantmaking services, civic leadership roles, community accountability and engagement, institutional partnerships and, finally, measurable achievements. A statistical analysis of the responses to each question was conducted by British social scientist and community philanthropy authority Barry Knight.

Knight’s careful dissection of the survey data has produced a long-needed baseline of hard data illuminating the important characteristics of community foundations. His thoroughgoing analysis also uncovered telling regional nuances in origin stories, developmental needs and achievements. Click on the button to read or download his report, entitled “Dimensions of the Field.”