Community Foundations: the Philanthropy for Development of Communities in The Ecology of Culture: Community Engagement, Co-creation, Cross Fertilization, Encatc, Brussel, Belgium ISBN 978-92-990036-2-6

Community foundations are non-profit entities whose aim is to develop communities and improve their quality of life. They are aimed at promoting philanthropic activity, stimulating donations and contributions for useful projects, and removing cultural, fiscal, legal and administrative barriers normally preventing the members of a community to contribute at the development of the common good. Community foundations supply resources, but the most important thing is to support the creation of networks that put donors, investors, institutions in touch with non-for- profit organizations in a specific territory. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of community foundations in supporting a process of economic, but more often, cultural, social or environmental territorial development. Then, thanks to the analysis of reports and mission statements, and a cluster analysis of meaningful 2013’s data, separating features, the paper will highlight, for Italian community foundations, who are grant-making, pooling resources, networking and leading.