An international research collaboration led by the Cleveland Foundation has announced the launch of a comprehensive online directory of community foundations around the globe.

Developed in partnership with Foundation Center, the Global Fund for Community Foundations, the Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS), and the Centre for Research and Innovation in Social Policy and Practice (CENTRIS) and funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Community Foundation Atlas maps the identities, locations, assets, roles, and achievements of 1,827 place-based philanthropies in sixty-seven countries. The community foundation movement has seen explosive growth in recent years, with the number of community foundations increasing from about a thousand in 2000 to more than eighteen hundred in 2014. Together, those foundations awarded grants totaling more than $4.9 billion during their last fiscal year. The CF Atlas website includes a foundation directory, data snapshots, first-person accounts of "the most meaningful change" a community foundation has realized, and stories of struggle and success.

According to Dimensions of the Field (26 pages, PDF), an analysis of survey data from four hundred and seventy-eight community foundations, nearly all respondents said grantmaking and accountability to local residents were important characteristics of their organizations, while nearly half said their foundations actively foster collaboration among grantees or provide training and capacity-building services to local organizations. The most commonly cited program area in which community foundations were engaged was education, followed by human and social services, arts and culture, and health.

"As an organization whose mission is to advance knowledge about philanthropy in the U.S. and around the world, Foundation Center is pleased to have participated in the creation of the Community Foundation Atlas," said Lawrence T. McGill, vice president for research at Foundation Center. "The website shines a much-needed spotlight on the work of place-based philanthropy around the world."