Mission:
To identify best practices and share them with emerging and existing community foundations.

Background:
Created in 1999 by the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Germany, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network includes community foundations and support organizations in Europe, North America, and Mexico. By providing a platform for communication, the TCFN enables community foundations to pool their resources, set performance benchmarks for measuring their progress, and devise ways to promote community-based philanthropy. TCFN working groups have investigated and reported on such issues as organizational development and effectiveness and advocacy for the community foundation concept.

Outstanding Web Features:
What the newly redesigned TCFN site lacks in visual appeal, it makes up for in new content and ease of navigation. The site provides access to papers, CD-ROMS, and PowerPoint presentations available in English and, to a lesser extent, German, Russian, Slovakian, and Spanish. Resources are presented in categories that include start-up phase, governance, fund development and donor services, visibility and marketing, and community leadership. Three noteworthy resources are the workbook Beyond Money and Grant-Making: The Emerging Role of Community Foundations (66 pages), which discusses non-grantmaking roles of community foundations; the Balance Wheel, a self-assessment tool; and the free CD-ROM Tools for the Field. In addition, users will find information on the history — and the future — of community foundations and on specific community foundations worldwide; sample documents such as articles of incorporation, bylaws, and grantmaking guidelines; and general resources.