This Is Our Vision for the Bay Area
Bay Area Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization created by and for the people of the Bay Area. We offer a range of flexible giving tools to help our donors make a positive impact on the community and causes that align with their interests and passions. In addition to first-rate donor service, we manage our community’s permanent endowment and award grants to address the community’s most pressing needs and promising opportunities.
Since 1982, our community has used our resources to make charitable gifts more effective. We provide maximum flexibility in establishing, managing, and distributing your gifts. Through our donors’ generosity, we can help support arts and culture, community initiatives, education and youth, environment, health and wellness, human services, and recreation in our area.
Our Mission
Building community through generosity, leadership, and strategic grantmaking.
How it Works: Give. Grow. Grant.
- Individuals, families, and businesses make gifts to existing funds or establish new funds at Bay Area Community Foundation. Gifts come in all shapes and sizes.
- These gifts are pooled together and invested for long-term growth. Most funds at Bay Area Community Foundation are endowed.
- A portion of the growth is available each year for grants to nonprofit organizations, scholarships, and to support collaborative leadership activities to find solutions to community challenges.
What is an Endowed Fund?
Endowments are funds that are invested for long-term growth. Earnings from endowments are used to make grants and address community needs, while the principle amount stays intact. Interested in more information?
Three Distinctive Features of Bay Area Community Foundation
Personalized Service
We make giving easy and effective by accepting a wide variety of gifts and providing donors with a number of charitable options. You can contribute cash, stocks, property, and bequests. You may establish a fund in your name or in the name of a loved one. In most cases, your gift qualifies for maximum tax advantages under federal law.
Local Expertise
We have an in-depth understanding of the issues, opportunities, and resources that shape our community. We monitor all areas of community need—including human services, education, the environment, health, the arts, youth, and economic development. We can help you learn more about local organizations and programs that make a difference in the areas you care about most.
Community Leadership
Through our grantmaking, we invest in the long-term and bring people and organizations together. We convey a variety of voices to address local and emerging issues. We are all about building community and helping the place we call home continue to grow and flourish.
BACF is accredited with National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations® — the highest standards for philanthropic excellence.
We work to support the causes our communities care about. According to National Standards, we meet the most rigorous principles in philanthropy. We look at that as our promise to our communities. A promise that we’ll continue to do this work for good — together, right here in Bay and Arenac counties.
National Standards is not mandatory. We choose to go above and beyond by affirming our commitment to excellence and accountability. Our accreditation provides assurance that we have sound policies and practices in place. In short, it means we meet the highest standards for local giving.
To receive accreditation with National Standards, Bay Area Community Foundation submitted our policies and procedures to a rigorous review of 41 National Standards in six key areas of community foundation operations, including donor services, investment management, grantmaking, and administration.
Learn more about the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations® program, established in 2000 in cooperation with the Council on Foundations.