On the Brink of New Promise

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On the Brink of New Promise THE FUTURE OF U.S.
COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
A presentation for the Border Philanthropy
Partnership June 28, 2006
Content provided by Blueprint Research
Design, Inc. and the Monitor Institute
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Todays Landscape for Community Philanthropy
Community foundations today operate in a more
complex and crowded environment
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Forces Shaping the New Era

• Economic and market pressures

With the shift from an industrial economy to an
information-based one, corporate consolidation,
globalization, and outsourcing are likely to
rearrange local economies as corporations become
increasingly mobile.

• Demographic changes

In the next generation, America will grow bigger,
older, and more diverse. The changing face of
the population will fundamentally alter the
composition and social dynamics of communities,
as well as the services they require.

• Changing expectations for regulation and
  accountability

Philanthropy in the next generation will operate
under increased regulatory and public scrutiny.
The field will also be affected by regulatory
changes in other sectors, including tax law,
homeland security, and intellectual property law.

• The commercial sector as innovator

Community philanthropy has long been connected to
several allied industries, such as accounting,
tax law, estate planning, investment advising,
and financial management. As each of these
industries innovate, merge, and develop new
services, they will force philanthropy to respond.

• Changing relationships between sectors and new
  expectations for public problem solving

Ongoing structural shifts in government services
and corporate responsibility will require
philanthropy to continuously assess these
relationships as it defines its role.
The combination of these forces is inescapably
changing much of what now feels familiar.
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Strategic Implications for Community Foundations
The best efforts of previous generations have
left us with an incredible legacy to build upon,
and the community philanthropy that we know today
will not disappear. But many of the original
assumptions that guided the early community
foundations no longer necessarily fit todays
operating environment. The mindset that guided
the field to this point will need to be replaced
with a new set of principles and priorities.
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Questions for Discussion

• What other trends matter for Mexican community
  foundations?
• Do the trends that are shaping U.S. foundations
  matter for Mexican community foundations?
• Do the same trends play out in different ways in
  the two countries?
• What trends matter on the Border specifically?
• How does the Border change the nature of how
  these trends matter?

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For more information, visit www.communityphilant
hropy.org