Community Foundation Performance: Bridging Community Resources and Needs

This study draws on organizational ecology perspective to explore the environmental and organizational factors associated with the performance of community foundations. Performance was conceptualized as fiscal efficiency and grant-making performance. Analysis was conducted on a national survey of 117 community foundations. Results revealed that increased organizational density was positively associated with fiscal efficiency but negatively associated to grant-making performance. Specialist foundations (i.e., foundations that serve a smaller sized community and those with smaller asset size) outperformed their generalist counterparts in fiscal efficiency and grant-making performance. The percentage of unrestricted funds was negatively associated with fiscal efficiency but not grant-making generosity. Board performance was positively associated with fiscal efficiency but not grant-making generosity.