Standards and Effective Practices for Community Foundations
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Home > National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations > Standard IV. Part A.

A community foundation is a steward of charitable funds, investing and prudently managing funds and maintaining accurate financial records.
Stewardship and Accountability - Standard IV. Part A.
The StandardMethodologiesExamplesCurrent Practice AssessmentKey Design ElementsMonitoring & EvaluationOther Resources

The Standard

A community foundation is a steward of charitable funds, investing and prudently managing funds and maintaining accurate financial records.

Underlying Rationale

Confidence that funds placed in a community foundation will be responsibly managed is central to a donor’s decision to do so.

Potential Outcomes

  1. Assurance to the board and the public that the financial practices of the foundation are in order.
  2. Assurance to the board, donors, and the public that the funds placed in the foundation’s care are responsibly managed.


The above materials are for educational purposes only. They are not standard or model forms and should only be used as a reference in developing your own documents with advice from legal counsel where appropriate. Please read the full Terms of Use for more information.

Please note that these materials were collected prior to the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 so do not necessarily reflect the recent changes in the law. As always, these documents should only be used as a reference in developing your own documents with advice from legal counsel where appropriate. For more information on the Pension Protection Act of 2006, see www.cof.org/hr4.
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