The Lutheran Community Foundation

In its role as steward, the Foundation performs due diligence on all grants we distribute.  We believe that learning more about charities and their work leads to more informed and thoughtful giving decisions; and being an informed and thoughtful giver will result in more effective grants to help charities advance their work.

To support and encourage donor research, we suggest you to use the resources below to gather information about specific charities you wish to support, and learn more about charitable giving.   

Learn more about charities:

Map of LCF Grants - Give wisely, and learn about the Foundation's grantmaking by searching our list of recent grant recipients.  Detailed information describes each charity's mission, location and lutheran affiliation, with links to IRS information from JustGive.org.

GuideStar - http://www.guidestar.org/using/donors.jsp
With free registration, you can view information on all l 1.7 million nonprofits listed with GuideStar, and all are formally registered with the IRS or have proven they meet all IRS criteria for exempt organizations.

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance www.give.org
After clicking “For Charities and Donors” on this site, you can check out a charity, view charity reports and standards, use the resource library and much more.

Charity Navigator: Your Guide to Intelligent Giving www.charitynavigator.org

Charity Navigator is the nation's largest evaluator of charities.  Their rating system examines two broad areas of a charity's financial health -- how responsibly it functions day to day as well as how well positioned it is to sustain its programs over time. Each charity is then awarded an overall rating, ranging from zero to four stars.

Learn more about giving:

Inspired Philanthropy – www.inspiredphilanthropy.com
Resources and activities from the popular book, Inspired Philanthropy, are available on this site.

National Center on Family Philanthropy – www.ncfp.org
The National Center site offers resources to encourage individuals and families to create and sustain a philanthropic mission.

Charities Review Council - www.smartgivers.org 
How to take a closer look at charities before making your important social investment.

Council on Foundations – www.cof.org
The Council has gathered resources to best explain philanthropy and grantmaking best practices.

Chronicle of Philanthropy – www.philanthropy.com
This newspaper of the nonprofit world has articles of interest to donors.

Share Save Spend – www.sharesavespend.com
This site contains resources to help youth and adults learn how to develop and maintain healthy money habits.