Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth

FACT SHEET

The mission of the national Coalition is to strengthen the leadership capacity of community foundations to improve the lives of children, youth and families. The fundamental criterion for membership in the Coalition is that the community foundation move beyond passive grantmaking and commit itself to take steps to cultivate awareness and stimulate stronger participation in local action on behalf of children, youth and families.

As a member of the Coalition, a community foundation is eligible to receive technical assistance to develop the skills to think and act strategically through the following mechanisms:

• National conference series to expose community foundations and their local coalition partners to thought leaders, best practices and the work of their colleagues;

• Various opportunities for grants for technical assistance and capacity-building;

• Dissemination of information and ideas about issues affecting children, youth and families;

• Opportunities to share local successes with a national audience; and

• Ongoing assistance from the Coalition's national staff and peer coaching to serve as problem-solving resources, including connecting experienced community foundations with communities that may be struggling with initial steps.

We believe the benefits to members of this network go far beyond the scope of the Coalition's grants programs as we learn from and support one another, and facilitate the sharing of information of significance to community foundations. The conferences are free of charge to members, and there is no membership fee for joining the Coalition.

In return, we ask that the community foundation agree to provide baseline information to the Coalition upon application, and annually thereafter, outlining the community foundation's commitments, financial and otherwise, to youth and family issues, and describing successful approaches and lessons learned.

Rev. 6/96