Community Foundation Assets Grow, Staff Ratios Lag Behind
Donor-advised funds held by community foundations reached a record $234 billion in assets under management in 2023, according to the National Philanthropic Trust's Donor-Advised Fund Report. As DAF assets and account counts grow, community foundation program staff face an expanding administrative workload — managing fund statements, processing grant recommendations, coordinating scholarship cycles, and maintaining donor communication records — with staffing levels that have not kept pace with growth. Virtual assistants are providing community foundations with a scalable solution to this imbalance without the overhead of full-time hires.
DAF Grant Recommendation Documentation
When fundholders submit grant recommendations — requests to distribute assets from their donor-advised fund to eligible nonprofit grantees — the administrative chain that follows requires careful documentation. The foundation must verify grantee eligibility, confirm 501(c)(3) status (or equivalent for foreign grantees), document the grant recommendation form, generate award letters, and track disbursement in the fund ledger.
VAs assigned to DAF grant processing review incoming recommendation submissions for completeness, run eligibility verification through IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search or GuideStar, route recommendations through the foundation's approval workflow, generate award letters from approved templates, and maintain a grant log that serves both fundholder reporting and foundation audit purposes. For foundations using grants management software such as Submittable, Foundant, or Salesforce Philanthropy Cloud, VAs update system records to reflect each stage of the recommendation cycle.
Scholarship Application Coordination
Many community foundations administer scholarship programs on behalf of named funds — often established by families, local businesses, or estates — adding a layer of complexity to already busy program calendars. Scholarship cycles involve application intake, eligibility screening, committee review coordination, award notification, and disbursement documentation, with academic year timing creating concentrated seasonal workloads.
VAs support scholarship program administration by managing the online application portal (SmarterSelect, Submittable, or the foundation's custom form), sending automated acknowledgment emails to applicants, screening submissions for eligibility criteria, preparing application review packets for the selection committee, scheduling committee review meetings, and drafting award and declination letters. After awards are made, VAs coordinate with colleges and universities on disbursement instructions and track payment confirmations.
Research from the Council on Foundations indicates that scholarship program administration consumes an average of 120 to 200 staff hours per cycle — hours that VA support can absorb at significantly lower cost.
Fund Statement Distribution
Fundholders expect timely, accurate fund statements that reflect current asset values, incoming gifts, and outgoing grant recommendations. Community foundations typically distribute statements quarterly, though many fundholders request ad hoc lookups in between cycles.
VAs manage the fund statement production and distribution process: generating statements from the accounting system or fund management platform (F.X. Haan, FIMS, or MicroEdge), formatting them per the foundation's branding standards, and distributing via the fundholder portal or email. They also field ad hoc statement requests, pulling fund balance information and routing to program staff for confirmation before release.
For endowed funds, VAs prepare the annual endowment performance summary that accompanies fund statements, compiling investment return data in coordination with the finance team.
Donor Communication Tracking
Community foundation fundraising and fundholder relations staff maintain ongoing communication with hundreds of donors simultaneously — cultivation conversations, gift receipt confirmations, estate planning inquiries, and fundholder service requests all require documentation to ensure continuity and relationship quality.
VAs maintain CRM communication logs (Salesforce, Raiser's Edge, or Bloomerang), recording interactions, scheduling follow-up reminders, and drafting acknowledgment correspondence for program staff review. When staff transitions occur — a persistent challenge in the nonprofit sector — comprehensive communication records allow incoming staff to pick up relationships without a reset period.
For community foundations scaling fundholder services without expanding headcount, VA partnerships offer a proven model. Organizations interested in this approach can explore options with Stealth Agents.
Sources
- National Philanthropic Trust, 2024 Donor-Advised Fund Report, nptrust.org
- Council on Foundations, scholarship program administration benchmarks, cof.org
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search, apps.irs.gov
- Foundation Financial Officers Group (FFOG), community foundation operations benchmarks, ffog.org