The creation of a stand-alone fund activity policy.
As our field continues to face scrutiny from policymakers who view donor advised funds as vehicles to "park money,” this change reflects the National Standards Advisory Committee’s decision to proactively address legislative and regulatory threats that would be harmful to community foundations across the country.
History demonstrates, as with the creation of the National Standards program itself, that self-regulation can help ward off harmful and misguided regulation. After coordinated efforts to assess the severity such threats, the committee determined that amending the National Standards process was critically necessary. As you will recall from the survey in which you were invited to participate this past summer, the committee sought input from the community foundation field to shape what is now the new National Standards requirement.
By updating the National Standards to reflect the fund activity policies and practices that many community foundations already exercise in practice, this change will not require much additional work for community foundations and will demonstrate to policymakers the field’s commitment to operating with the highest level of integrity and accountability.
For more information about the new requirement in the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations® accreditation process, please contact Christina Gonzalez, Executive Director of the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations® at submissions@cfstandards.org, or 703.879.0628.