Building inclusive communities: Welcoming resources for community foundations

As community foundations increasingly recognize the importance of fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, they are discovering that welcoming is a key dimension of this work that is often overlooked.

Also known as immigrant inclusion, welcoming refers to the constellation of practices and policies that create environments where immigrants and refugees are embraced into the community, with ample access to resources, support, and opportunities to thrive. Welcoming addresses many facets of belonging that all residents can benefit from, no matter where they come from.

For 15 years, Welcoming America has seen more communities trend toward deeper and more intentional consideration of immigrants and refugees in their inclusion efforts. Communities can only achieve true belonging when everyone’s well-being is prioritized, and we’re all able to influence and participate in the institutions and structures that shape our lives.

“Community foundations should make welcoming a priority because our job is to serve the entire community, and we can best accomplish this when the entire community feels like they are welcome to participate and provide input about the needs and successes of the community.” — Jessica Wurtz, Director of Philanthropy, Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley, Colorado

To be sustainable and successful, welcoming requires a whole ecosystem of organizations and individuals to take deliberate action for inclusion.

That’s where community foundations come in.

As local leaders, community foundations can play multiple roles to advance welcoming in their communities, such as funder, convener, champion, or partner.

In 2024, CFLeads and Welcoming America partnered to host a community of practice to support community foundations in deepening their welcoming and belonging work.

Fifteen community foundations were selected to participate in this cohort:

Over three virtual meetings and a convening at the 2024 Welcoming Interactive in Dallas, participants in the community of practice explored how they can advance belonging where they live.

Biggest takeaways

Welcoming is a timely, urgent issue and is an important value underlying the work to achieve belonging. To create welcoming communities, community foundations can lean on existing frameworks and resources to effectively respond to demographic changes and migration.

“The principles behind welcoming work resonate deeply with our foundation, as our vision is to ensure a Gunnison Valley where all can thrive — which includes feeling welcome and a sense of belonging.” — Jessica Wurtz

“For community foundations with discretionary funds, I have no doubt that lots of grants are being made to immigrant- and refugee-serving organizations. The welcoming lens provides valuable framing for this broad range of work.” — Jonathan Cohen, Vice President of Community Impact, Greater Worcester Community Foundation

“Through our strategic planning process, community members were saying [belonging] is something that we should be focusing on. Participating in the community practice has helped us to think about things in new ways.” — Brandi Yee, Chief Program Officer, ACT for Alexandria

Many cohort participants reflected that “belonging” was a term that people could connect to more than “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or similar language. One community foundation used “belonging” in their draft DEI policy, which helped the board adopt it.

Leveraging existing networks and partnerships to support and sustain welcoming work is one of the best ways community foundations felt they could engage. Cohort participants received complimentary membership to the Welcoming Network to help them kickstart and deepen welcoming work in their communities.

“We featured the Gunnison Cultural Connection [the entity that heads up immigrant inclusion efforts for the city] at the rural funder event we just hosted, and recently launched a crowdfunding program that we hope will be a funding resource for welcoming, inclusion, and equity projects.” — Jessica Wurtz

Community foundations hold power locally — and beyond. Displaying leadership by making public statements of support can shine a light on important issues like welcoming and belonging.

“We got an opportunity to write an op-ed for our local paper that highlighted this welcoming and belonging work. We are thinking about how we are using our relational and social capital to bring different topics to light in the community.” — Brandi Yee

“Some private foundations do not know about Welcoming America or Welcoming Week, so in that regard, community foundations can play an important role in connecting their welcoming efforts with funders who may have an interest in immigrant inclusion and equity work.” — Jessica Wurtz

Lastly, having time to reflect and interact with peers is invaluable for these community leaders who want to connect what’s happening in their communities with the bigger picture.

“With so much happening day to day, it’s hard to even conceive of taking a few moments to talk about the big picture with nonprofit leaders on the front lines; but, even a brief pause to show appreciation and share ideas is energizing and galvanizing.” — Jonathan Cohen

Inclusion in action: Welcoming Week 2024

Each community foundation in the cohort committed to participating in Welcoming Week from September 13-22, 2024. Here are some examples and results:

Greater Worcester Community Foundation hosted a breakfast convening to thank the community members, nonprofit staff, and volunteers working on the front lines of immigrant and refugee services. They used the event to reflect and start a conversation about how Worcester can begin to use the Welcoming Standard going forward.

Photo credit: Jonathan Cohen, Greater Worcester Community Foundation

In honor of its 20th anniversary, ACT for Alexandria distributed $20,000 in grants to local organizations to celebrate Welcoming Week. 11 organizations received grants, several of which connected with the community foundation for the first time through this opportunity.

One of the Welcoming Week events hosted by an ACT for Alexandria grantee in Alexandria, Virginia

The Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley co-sponsored Gunnison Cultural Connection's Welcoming Week activities. The Diversity Walk began at the community foundation’s office before going through town.