Council on Foundations - Community foundations becoming ‘mainstream’ at World Bank

Launched in 2002 following a series of conversations between the International Committee of the Council on Foundations and senior officials of the World Bank, the World Bank Community Foundation Initiative (CFI) is to conclude next year. With funding from the Ford Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the World Bank, the CFI’s aim has been to educate Bank staff about the community foundation concept and to engage the Bank in a learning process through support of a limited number of pilot community foundations in developing countries.

The Council on Foundations’ role is to coordinate the 13-member Advisory Committee that meets with Bank staff several times a year to support and guide the initiative. As a result of CFI educational programmes for Bank staff and outreach to key country directors and task team leaders, interest in community foundations has spread throughout the World Bank and its sister organization the International Finance Corporation. A senior bank official sees the concept becoming ‘mainstreamed’ within the Bank’s thinking and strategies for sustaining poverty alleviation and community development.

Nine pilot projects are being nurtured through a variety of World Bank mechanisms – social investment funds, CDD (community driven development) projects and the small grants programme – in four countries: Moldova, Kenya, Tanzania and Thailand. While all are in the early stages of development (community foundations can take 10 years or more to mature), the CFI is building on local interest to adapt the concept to local culture and conditions. Beyond seed funding, the CFI is providing technical assistance and facilitating linkages with other organizations and networks.

The CFI will end as planned in June 2008. Representatives from all the pilot sites as well as key World Bank officials and the Advisory Committee plan to convene in Tanzania in March 2008 to share learning and assess the initiative’s impact. A formal evaluation is also planned.

Council on Foundations
Director, International Programs: Rob Buchanan
T +1 202 466 6512
International@cof.org
Buchr@cof.org
www.cof.org