Rob Collier, the retiring president of the Council of Michigan Foundations, says the rapid growth of donor-advised funds is helping to get more money into communities — and cautions against creating new rules that would curtail giving.

For community foundations, donor-advised funds are all about impact, writes Dan Baldwin, president of the Community Foundation for Monterey County.

Fifty years after he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., Martin Luther King Jr.’s presence remains strong in this Southern city.

A special series of grants by the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis aims to make sure Dr. King’s vision continues to positively shape his former hometown for years to come.

Community foundations often get headlines for their work leading large-scale efforts that aim to tackle major problems in their communities.

But what’s often overlooked is the work community foundations do to connect smaller nonprofits with new donors — and the steps these foundations take to help community-based nonprofits to build their capacity and donor pipeline.

One way community foundations do this is through their coordination of giving days. Giving days are organized, community-wide events in which donors are asked to pledge money or time to charities. In many communities across the country, community foundations take the leading role in staging these events — providing everything from a centralized website that collects donations, to the marketing and publicity, to enlisting corporate sponsors and donors who provide matching gifts.

After Richard Lavine lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, family members created funds at Communities Foundation of Texas to support research. Today, their donor-advised funds are helping researchers at Baylor University test a promising new drug combination that might help save future lives.

Community foundations often play a central and unsung role at times of disaster — helping those who have been affected recover and rebuild for the long term

Community foundations in North Carolina and South Carolina provide donors who are looking to support the Hurricane Florence relief efforts with peace of mind that their donations will help those most in need.

Grants by the nation’s 100 largest community foundations reached a record total in 2017, according to the Columbus Survey. The annual survey also shows that community foundations are well positioned to continue to ramp up their grantmaking, even as economic conditions change.

Community foundations have long played a critical role in investing in efforts to address local issues and in bringing people together to solve problems. Let’s keep it that way.