COMMUNITY FOUNDATION SURVEY REPORT

A Better Way To Compare And Lead

Q3 2025

Updated: 11/21/2025

The FAOG x Crewcial report draws insights from community foundations across the country, helping fuel smarter, grounded decisions, whatever your mission or endowment size.

 

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FROM OUR DATA DESK

 

Welcome to the new format of the Community Foundation Survey.

Over the past year, many of you have asked for a cleaner, more flexible way to explore and share this report. We listened. Now you can view trends by peer group, more easily compare performance and allocations across time horizons, and download only the visuals you need.

It’s the same data you’ve come to rely on, just easier to work with. No PDF skimming required.

We’ve also made space for fresh insights and quick takes throughout, helping you spot shifts faster. The features we’ve prioritized reflect what we’ve consistently heard from you and your peers: make it simpler to benchmark, easier to pull what matters, and faster to turn data into action.

This is just the start. Thank you for your engagement and input, which will continue to shape what comes next.

 

Jay Burke

Crewcial's Director of Information Management

Longtime steward of the Community Foundation Survey

FEATURED POLL RESULTS

Each quarter, we spotlight a timely pulse-check from your peers, offering a window into how fellow community foundations are planning, adapting, and executing in real time.

Which area of your foundation’s operations could benefit most from automation?

Respondents identified grants management and investment performance reporting as top priorities for improved automation.

The responses reinforce a broader and growing focus on data transparency, workflow automation, and reporting efficiency. Community foundations appear to be in a consolidation phase, with many institutions seeking tech solutions to reduce manual reporting and better integrate grant-making with financial and investment operations, prioritizing operational agility.

Meanwhile, budget forecasting, donor communication, and administering outside funds received comparatively less focus. This may reflect a deliberate narrowing of strategic scope as foundations consolidate around core infrastructure and mission delivery, suggesting a preference for depth over breadth in the current operating environment. These lower-priority areas may re-emerge as strategic focuses once primary functions are satisfactorily updated.

 
SHORT TERM PERFORMANCE

This section surfaces near-term shifts across peer groups and portfolio types, helping you track momentum, volatility, and divergence before they show up in long-range trends.

For Q3 2025, participating community foundations posted a median return of 5.5%, slightly outperforming the 5.2% return of the 60/40 benchmark. Portfolios remained well-positioned amid a moderate equity rally and stable interest rates.

Improving inflation data and early signals of monetary easing supported risk assets, underscoring the value of maintaining balanced exposure to global equities and fixed income. Year to date, community foundations delivered a strong aggregate return of 13%, driven by favorable markets and disciplined portfolio management.

PERFORMANCE TEARSHEETS

Explore performance and allocation trends by peer group, size, and strategy; then download only what you need. The new middle section surfaces relevant insights across peer groups, setting the stage for future surveys where you can help shape and unpack the most pressing questions.

Median Performance by Strategy

Relative to last quarter’s median foundation return of 7.1%, performance moderated but remained consistent with long-term objectives. The majority of respondents continue to operate diversified portfolios aligned with investment policy targets, with dispersion primarily driven by equity exposure and rebalancing timing.

Foundations maintaining higher allocations to global equities and real assets generally achieved above-average results, while those emphasizing fixed income or cash modestly lagged .

This quarter reinforced the value of balanced exposure across both traditional and alternative assets. Larger foundations with broader private market allocations saw returns cluster around the median, while smaller peers benefited more directly from public equity gains.

HISTORICAL ASSET ALLOCATIONS

This long-view snapshot highlights shifts in asset allocation, revealing trends in equity exposure, diversification into alternatives, and capital preservation across market cycles.

Understanding the Allocation Gap Between Top and Bottom Performers

Top-performing community foundations in Q3 2025 maintained higher exposure to global and US equities, which aligned well with the quarter’s risk-on environment and improving liquidity backdrop. In contrast, foundations with greater allocations to fixed income and cash equivalents saw more muted results; declining yields provided less opportunity for upside participation.

This quarter’s results suggest that allocation outcomes were shaped less by extreme tilts and more by incremental positioning within diversified frameworks; even small shifts toward growth assets proved advantageous. The dispersion between top and bottom performers underscores how differing views on liquidity and market durability continue to shape relative performance as the rate-cutting cycle begins to unfold.

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INFORM THE NARRATIVE

Weigh in on the timely topics setting your community abuzz. Your perspective helps us surface what’s actually happening and shape the insights we share next.

This month, we’re exploring:
How are CFs thinking about AI's role in daily operations?

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Help shape the industry’s most trusted dataset on community foundation performance. Join a growing network of peers contributing quarterly data to fuel smarter comparisons, sharper insights, and stronger outcomes for all.

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