Community philanthropy is a universal practice, found across time and borders, as individuals come together to share resources and improve their communities. These practices take many forms — from highly institutionalized community foundations to mutual aid groups and collective giving networks.
The W.K. Kellogg Community Philanthropy Chair, established at the Johnson Center in 2015, was the first endowed chair in community philanthropy in the country. The Chair partners with a network of community and public foundations, collective giving groups, and national and international communities to support, research, and lift up the practice of community philanthropy.
This Chair honors the philanthropic legacy and civic investment of W.K. Kellogg, founder of the Kellogg Company and W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. The Kellogg Chair was established with a gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kellogg Company 25-Year Employees’ Fund.
U.S. Collective Giving Research Initiative
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2023 U.S. Collective Giving Research Initiative
Practiced in cultures all around the world, collective giving brings people together to pool their resources, including time, talent, treasure, testimony, and ties — often referred to as the 5 T’s. Groups like giving circles, SVP chapters, giving projects, and fundraising circles have long served as democratic and philanthropic learning hubs — bringing traditionally marginalized voices into philanthropic decision-making spaces, challenging preconceived notions of who is considered a philanthropist, and elevating members as integral actors in our sector’s efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in giving. Learn More.
Dr. Michael Layton is pursuing this research in partnership with Philanthropy Together and co-researcher Dr. Adriana Loson-Ceballos. Generous support for this project is provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Lodestar Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Family and Community Philanthropy in Latin America
In the past two decades, Latin America has seen important progress in the development of its formal philanthropic infrastructure — particularly through institutions such as community foundations, which channel and grow local philanthropic engagement. Today, growing wealth concentration, the preponderance of family business ownership, and the evolution of philanthropic practices — with traditional cultures of giving increasingly being organized and channeled through formal institutions — combine to create a crucial moment in the region’s philanthropic development.
Yet research on philanthropy in Latin America remains relatively sparse and does not offer sufficient guidance to understand these dynamics — including promising trends in collaborative and place-based giving — or to seize this vital moment.
Phase One of our research focused on Mexico, in collaboration with Dr. Michael Moody of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and the community foundation movement, especially Comunalia and CEMEFI. Phase Two is currently underway in Colombia, in partnership with TerritoriA, and highlights the role of territorial foundations in promoting community-centered philanthropy.
This research is generously funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, with additional grants from the George and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Foundation and the Tinker Foundation. It has also benefited from in-kind support provided by community foundations in Mexico and by TerritoriA in Colombia.
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