Blue Grass Community Foundation has been named as the fifth most active community foundation grantmaker in the United States in 2014, according to a national report released recently by CF insights.
“We are thrilled but not completely surprised to learn that the Community Foundation is among the top five community foundations nationally when it comes to making grants for community good,” said Lisa Adkins, president/CEO of Blue Grass Community Foundation, in a media release. “Our mission is to invest in our communities through catalytic grantmaking and strategic community leadership. Bottom line, our donors are extraordinarily generous. And we are committed to being good stewards for the funds our donors entrust to us.”
The rankings were based on more than just the total assets of community foundations. In the report, titled “Benchmarking Beyond Asset Size: the Top 100 Lists,” CF Insights calculated foundation grantmaking rates by dividing organizations’ total grants by their total assets.
In 2014, the Blue Grass Community Foundation awarded more than $16 million in grants, and it’s grant distribution rate was 26 percent, higher than some community foundations with more than ten times the assets of BGCF. In addition, the BGCF has increased the contributions made to its funds by 494 percent over the past four years.
“Seventy-three percent of all funds at the Community Foundation are endowed and so will continue to provide perpetual support for our communities,” Adkins said.
CF Insights operates under the auspices of the Foundation Center, a nonporfit that serves as an informational resource on worldwide philanthropy.