Contact Director of Donor Relations Amy Fackelmann today at (213) 413-4130 to learn more.

Whether you are a seasoned philanthropist or just starting out, our Donor Relations team can provide you with resources, tools and information that will help you fulfill your charitable goals and become a more strategic philanthropist.

We hope you will deepen your knowledge about grantmaking and philanthropy, learn about specific issue areas — such as literacy or affordable housing — and enhance your grantmaking strategies by participating in our Legacy Society events, calling our offices and consulting with our expert staff in individual meetings.

Donor Resources and Tools

One-on-One Meetings
Our expert staff is happy to meet with you to answer questions, discuss effective giving approaches and build a suitable grantmaking strategy for you.

After setting up a fund at the community foundation, donors complete a simple survey that will help us learn the direction of your grantmaking.

The Strategic Philanthropy Questionnaire is a simple, step-by-step tool that walks you through the process of identifying a cause, selecting a focus area of interest and setting realistic giving amounts. Each person involved in grantmaking decisions for a fund should complete the questionnaire. For best results, a meeting with donor relations staff is recommended to answer questions, help you compare various giving approaches and build a suitable grantmaking strategy for your fund. Call (213) 413-4130 to request the questionnaire and set up your meeting.

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Research: Finding the Nonprofit That Fits Your Goals
We work with our Programs Department to develop customized summaries of nonprofits at donors’ requests. Depending on the topic and the request, these summaries can cover specific organizations or broad focus or issue areas where best practices of addressing those issues are shared. Let us know if you have an interest in supporting arts for inner city youth, or affordable housing, or literacy. Once we know your area of interest, we can connect you with nonprofits successfully addressing those issues.

If you would like to visit a nonprofit you are considering supporting, we can help plan the visit with our Site Visit Checklist for Donors that includes instructions on how to prepare for and conduct a site visit. We also can help you choose an organization and if you wish, accompany you on a visit to see a nonprofit’s programs in action.

Family Philanthropy Online
To promote giving across generations, CCF, in partnership with the National Center for Philanthropy, is proud to offer this online resource exclusively to foundation donors and their families. Read articles and participate in teleconferences covering topics such as legal issues pertaining to family foundations and creating a vision for family giving.

Legacy Society Events: Let’s Do Lunch and Learn Something New
These events feature an expert keynote speaker who discusses a broad topic affecting the community, such as affordable housing or preschool education. Consistently rated highly satisfactory by our donors and Legacy Society members, these events are held two to three times a year and also include professional advisors and board members as guests.

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Donor Dialogues: Swap Stories and Learn from Each Other
Donor Dialogues are interactive, small group workshops designed to share with donors practical ways of enhancing each other’s philanthropy and to learn about innovative ways to address challenges facing our community. These dialogues are separate from the one-on-one meetings we have with individual donors to discuss their grantmaking strategy. Topics at the Donor Dialogues have included Philanthropy 101 and Involving your Children in Philanthropy.

Library On All Things Philanthropic
Are you unsure whether your assets can be donated? How do you calculate the social return on your investment in the arts? Many of the philanthropy-related topics or issues you may be struggling with have often been dealt with before. You may find the answers in our resource library, which offers books, articles and other materials to help you learn about a particular topic. Issue papers are accessible online.

Our library also features articles written by staff that have appeared in our newsletter and other sources, providing information on best practices and useful tools for donors with advised funds.

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