The Community Foundation Opportunity Network (CFON) is a national network of nearly 60 U.S. community foundations of all sizes and geographies working together to create thriving and equitable communities.
The stark and complex challenges facing our communities demand bold action – and CFON’s network of community foundations is leaning into this necessity. Our members’ current priorities include affordable housing, economic mobility, early childhood development, direct cash assistance, and education.
We welcome you to join us to accelerate positive change!
The Challenge
A growing opportunity gap, declining social mobility, and the persistent legacy of structural and systemic racism represent some of the most urgent challenges facing our communities. Those challenges have only become more pressing amid a flurry of policy shifts that pose unprecedented threats to the “American dream” and to the idea that all of us deserve a fair opportunity to pursue our best lives.
This is not a time to back down, but rather to double down on commitment to creating and supporting communities that empower all their members to thrive.
“Whether you talk about equity, belonging, or any word you’re going to use, at the end of the day, the word that matters in equity is all. Equity means just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.”
– Michael McAfee, (former) CEO PolicyLink, CFON Forum Keynote Address, 2023
The Solution
Evidence and experience tell us that no single program or initiative will work to solve our complex and multi-faceted challenges — because every community is unique.
The community foundations that are part of the CFON network recognize this challenge by pursuing promising solutions that are tailored to meet each community’s needs. At the same time, they learn from each other — drawing from proven strategies, initiatives and policies supported by visionary leaders and engaged community members.
CFON is a network of, by, and for our members, built on the idea that community foundations are ideally positioned to work closely with business, government, philanthropy, community organizations, and engaged citizens to create stronger, fairer, and more resilient communities.
Through CFON, community foundations are coming together to pursue their common goal to increase equity and economic mobility for all.
CFON provides opportunities for national and regional partners to work with this amazing network of organizations that are deeply rooted in local communities to build innovative approaches to advance our common goal of equity, opportunity, and justice for all.
CFON Values
We believe…
- that dismantling structural and systemic racism is imperative to achieve economic and social mobility for individuals, families, and communities across the US.
- in sharing power and decision making through proximity to and inclusion of diverse voices of those with lived experience and most affected by our collective challenges.
- that by listening and working with our communities to create and adopt new narratives about local challenges, we will help advance and influence equitable policy and investments and leverage philanthropic and community capital in new ways.
- that it takes courage to challenge current thinking through deep, intentional conversations and to make investments in bold and innovative strategies that lead to long-term, enduring change.
- that learning and evolving our work, through curiosity and humility, are key cornerstones to drive and sustain change.
- in the power of building and nurturing authentic individual and institutional relationships to foster trust within our communities.
Structure and Objectives
To organize its work, CFON adopted the strategic framework developed by the US Partnership for Mobility from Poverty (with permission), adding an explicit emphasis on equity, belonging, and inclusion.
CFON is designed to empower foundations and their partners on the ground to learn faster, develop new approaches, prototype those ideas, attract significant philanthropic investments, and scale innovations and strategies that produce results. To achieve that, CFON operates on three interconnected paths to action:
Path 1: Learning and Sharing is the common ground for participating foundations to learn from each other, thought leaders, and network partners. This includes virtual and face-to-face gatherings, access to resources and thought leadership, and facilitated ways to connect with one another.
Path 2: Cohorts: an opportunity for member foundations to join a facilitated smaller group for a prescribed period of time to dive deep into focus areas of interest. Current cohorts include Equitable Housing and Community Impact, with plans for an Equitable Operations cohort for administrative and operations staff and others based on member interest.
Path 3: Collaboratives: opportunities for member foundations to join a smaller group focused on collective action and collaborative learning and innovation. Our current collaborative, NEON, is focused on systems change to dismantle structural and systemic racism and achieve economic and social mobility in communities where the participating foundations have demonstrated the capacity to lead and influence these outcomes. NEON members have worked together since 2021.
We welcome additional community foundations and other change-oriented funders. Since our inception, the following national foundation partners have also supported the network: Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Bader Philanthropies, Charles S. Mott Foundation, Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Initiative, Ford Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, Skillman Foundation, Urban Institute, and W.T. Grant Foundation. Advisors to the group have included Dr. Robert Putnam, Richard Reeves, Nisha Patel, Frameworks Institute, New America, Zero To Three, and other leading thinkers on related issues of opportunity, mobility, and equity.