Field Leadership

Field Leadership
CFLeads is uniquely positioned to provide observations and insights for and about the community foundation field.

By working with hundreds of community foundations across the country, we identify trends, challenges and opportunities that are emerging across the field. We share these insights through a variety of mediums.

A New Era for Community Foundations

In a 2019 New Year’s missive, former CFLeads President & CEO Deborah Ellwood reflected on the accomplishments and challenges the community foundation field has faced over the last decade.

This missive prompted CFLeads to thoroughly examine the field to get a full picture of the status of community foundations to help determine what we need to increase our effectiveness and be of even greater value to our communities.

Igniting the Future of Community Foundations 

In 2019 and 2020, we worked with Candid’s CF Insights to survey the community foundation field. We supplemented these findings with dozens of interviews, highlighting specific illustrations of how community foundation leaders were responding to the challenges facing their communities and adapting to unexpected crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and racial reckoning in 2020. 

The Igniting project was led by an Advisory Committee comprised of community foundation leaders from across the U.S., CFLeads staff, and James Davitt Rooney, Principal of Rooney Associates LLC and Senior Fellow at the Boston Foundation. 

Going All In 

We share our findings from the Igniting the Future of Community Foundations project on Going All In, a dynamic web portal that highlights community foundation momentum across three key areas: insisting on racial equity, amplifying community voice and influencing public policy and systems. 

Related Content

Advancing Welcoming through Community Foundations

CFLeads and Welcoming America partnered to host “Advancing Welcoming through Community Foundations,” a discussion about the potential for greater coordination, collaboration, and investment from community foundations in advancing the vital work of welcoming newcomers into U.S. communities.

CFLeads Transitions

CFLeads President and CEO, Deborah Ellwood, will be leaving the organization in mid-June to take the helm at the Maine Community Foundation.