Place-based Giving

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Place-based giving is a pillar of traditional philanthropy. People give to communities they care about, and place-based giving can allow donors to see the impact of their giving close to home, where they’re from, or where they found success. As distinct from national or global giving, place-based giving focuses on a particular location — like a city, a neighborhood or a region.  

Focusing on a particular place can allow funders to take on big problems in a way that feels manageable. For instance, a donor who wants to do something about homelessness can, instead of trying to solve the hugely complex national problem of inadequate supplies of affordable and/or supportive housing, give to nonprofits looking to tackle this issue in a single place. Place-based funders can also seek to improve life in a particular community by giving across different areas, such as education, the arts, public parks and more.

At its best, place-based giving is collaborative and long term, with funders, nonprofits and government agencies partnering to improve the quality of life in a given place. Place-based giving can involve multiple philanthropic strategies, such as giving for direct services, advocacy, impact investing, and public-private partnerships between governments and private donors.  

Why Donors Support Place-Based Giving

Many donors today seek to support national and global solutions to pressing problems. But place-based giving can be an effective way to fund solutions closer to home, which may then be replicated or scaled to a national or global level. These are some of the reasons so many donors engage in place-based giving: 

  • Deep attachment to a community. Maybe it’s your neighborhood or the town where you grew up. Maybe it’s the city where you’ve built your business or the region where your family has lived for generations. Maybe it is a neighborhood within your larger community that hasn’t benefited as much from economic success as where you live. People give to make a positive difference in a place they care about.

  • Knowledge of what is and isn’t working in a community. Beyond caring about it, if you really understand a place — like the shortcomings of local government or gaps in social services — you can be an effective place-based philanthropist. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel, and you do want to give where your resources can be used for the greatest community benefit. The better you know a place, the more effective a place-based funder you’ll be.

  • Relationships with other local stakeholders. Your connections with local nonprofit and business leaders, government officials and community members are a real asset in place-based giving. If you know the stakeholders and have a gift for bringing people together, place-based giving might be a great fit for you.  

  • Wanting to see discernible impact. With place-based giving, you can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. You can also pool resources with other donors in your area to collectively give local nonprofits a major boost. When you are working in a particular geography, you can more easily wrap your resources around complex issues and see the specific changes your dollars make. 

  • It can be part of a multifaceted giving plan. You don’t have to conduct place-based giving exclusively. Many major philanthropies have a place-based giving program focused on a region they care about alongside issue-based national or global giving programs. Place-based giving can be one part of your multifaceted giving plan.

Key Considerations

Place-based giving has a long and important history in philanthropy, and giving where you live is the strategy that most donors pursue to some extent. Local work needs resources and there are many reasons to engage in local giving. But there are also some countervailing concerns that donors may want to consider:

  • Long-term solutions require systemic change. The challenges any given community faces — whether around economic development, education or healthcare — are usually a symptom of larger national problems, so infusions of philanthropic dollars may only temporarily or partially fix the problem locally. But just as with the argument for supporting direct services in the midst of larger social injustices, there is an argument that communities have real needs now that can’t wait for overarching change in systems.  

  • The place where you live might not have the greatest needs. Donors tend to live in places that are much better resourced. This means they may either be donating to an already privileged region or giving for work in an under-resourced neighborhood in their community that they do not fully understand. Donors interested in funding local work should think about the authentic leadership of under-resourced communities and make sure philanthropic dollars are going to their priorities.

  • People, physical assets and mixed concepts of what’s being fixed. Place-based funders tend to assume they are supporting a fixed group of people who live there, but most communities have a steady flow of people moving in and out. Education and training programs are often centered on a place, but people who benefit from them often move on to other places. Any successful place-based strategy will have to take into consideration concepts of gentrification and displacement, what it means for communities to change and evolve, and whether the objective is to make sure a specific geographic area improves or the lives of people who have lived there get closer to what they envision. 

Taking Action

In the list below, donors will find criteria for identifying where to give with a place-based giving strategy:

  • Give to nonprofits the community knows and trusts. The organizations that will be most effective at finding and implementing community-driven solutions are the ones with real roots and relationships in the community. Look for nonprofits led by community members or with a longtime commitment to the community. The better a nonprofit knows the community, and the more trusted it is by the community, the more effective it will be at truly serving that community and making life better for the people who live there.

  • Give to a community foundation. Community foundations exist to improve the quality of life in a given community. They know the local nonprofit ecosystem and they have thoughtfully developed grantmaking programs to support vetted nonprofits across the community. You can donate to a community foundation and let it regrant the funds across the community through its grant programs. You can also create a donor-advised fund at a community foundation and access the staff’s expertise as you create a custom place-based giving plan. Seek out a community foundation whose mission is aligned with yours. Read their website, attend some events, maybe get to know the staff. There may be more than one community foundation in your area, and you’ll do best to work with the one that feels most aligned with your values and vision.

  • Give through an intermediary. There are donor collaboratives and other philanthropic intermediaries focused on particular places — for example, the antipoverty funders Tipping Point Community, in California’s Bay Area, and the Robin Hood Foundation, which funds nonprofits across the five boroughs of New York City. They pool resources from donors large and small and redistribute the funds to vetted nonprofits that are fighting poverty in their respective regions. Intermediaries like these are experienced and informed, and they already have plans and procedures in place for effective place-based giving. Instead of doing all the research yourself, you can give to an intermediary that will quickly redistribute the funds where they are needed most and where they can be used for the greatest community benefit. 

  • Give to nonprofits you already know and trust. If you’re interested in place-based giving, you may already have relationships with nonprofits in your area of focus. Maybe it’s a nonprofit that made a positive difference for you or your neighborhood, or one you’ve been giving to for a long time. That might be the perfect place to start your place-based giving. That might include getting to know the staff and/or inquiring about ways you can give in addition to money, such as contributing pro bono services, board membership, or introducing other potential supporters to the organization.  

There are many ways to participate in place-based giving. Here we offer a few possibilities and best practices.   

  • Give general operating support. General operating support is unrestricted funding that a nonprofit can spend as it sees fit, on any of its expenses. When you find an organization you want to support, giving them unrestricted general operating support means they have the flexibility to use the funds where they are most needed at any given time.

  • Make a long-term commitment. The idea behind place-based giving is that it is holistic, sustained support to help nonprofits achieve transformative change or solve a big issue in a particular place. This kind of giving is best done with a multi-year commitment, so that nonprofits can count on your support for the multi-year work required for transformation.

  • Collaborate with other funders. Even if you don’t do it through a pooled fund or formal donor collaborative, try to collaborate with other funders to maximize your collective impact on a place. With place-based giving, you’re trying to have a broad impact on a particular place. The more you can partner with other funders, the broader your impact can be. 

  • Build relationships and be a partner. Place-based giving involves collaboration — between donors, and also between philanthropists, nonprofits, governments and communities. Think of yourself as a partner to fellow donors and also to the nonprofits you’re giving to.  

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