The first Community Foundation was established 1914 in the USA.  They started in the early 1980s in the UK and in 1997 the Melbourne Community Foundation (MCF) became the first independent community foundation in Australia.  Today there are over 26 community foundations operating all over Australia.

A community foundation seeks to build a permanent pool of locally held funds to support local communities.

Community Foundations are one of the fastest growing forms of philanthropy in the world. There are good reasons for this:

• A community foundation understands the changing needs of its own community, which makes your charitable giving more effective;
• A community foundation provides an easy mechanism for achieving your charitable giving objectives;
• A gift to the Public Fund of a community foundation is tax effective; and
• A community foundation provides an opportunity to work with others to build an independent long term resource for your community.

Community Foundations share the same characteristics.  They:

• seek to improve the quality of life for all people within their community
• are independent from control or influence by other organisations or government
• are governed by a board of citizens broadly reflective of the communities they serve
• make grants to other nonprofit and community groups to address disadvantage and a wide variety of emerging and changing needs in the community
• seek to build a permanent resource for the community through the creation of endowed funds from a wide range of donors
• provide services to donors to help them achieve their philanthropic goals.