Welcome to the Delaware Community Foundation

For more than 20 years, the Delaware Community Foundation has been connecting people who care with the causes they care about by helping them establish charitable funds and provide grants to the nonprofit organizations they wish to support.

We invite you to explore our website and learn you can help others make Delaware a better place to live and work.

What's New at the DCF

1,000 Founders and Counting! The Fund For Women will hold three evening events -- one in each county -- to celebrate the achievement of its original goal to recruit 1,000 Founders to contribute $1,000 each to support programs that benefit women and girls in Delaware. For information on dates, locations & reservations, click here.

The EDiS Company will award a $1,000 Generation III Scholarship to one student who is interested in studying architecture, engineering or business at the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Delaware Technical and Community College, Goldey Beacom College, Wesley College or Lincoln University. For criteria, click here. For an application, click here. Applications are due April 23, 2010.

It is with great regret and sadness that Connections announces the loss of two beloved staff members, Mike Kriner and Chris Sturmfels. To honor their contributions in the social services sector, Connections has established the Christopher Sturmfels and Michael Kriner Memorial Fund. To view their "In Memoriam" announcement in The News Journal and how you can make a donation, click here.

DCF's President & CEO Fred C. Sears II was honored with the Good Neighbor Ujima Non-Profit Leadership Award by State Farm Insurance for his outstanding leadership and volunteer service to the African American community. Sears was recognized for his work in creating the African American Empowerment Fund of Delaware at the Foundation. For more information about the event, click here.

The Gilliam Foundation has pledged $30,000 to the Delaware  Delaware Black Caucus Haiti Relief Fund to provide continuing assistance to the earthquake victims in that country. Officers of the Foundation hope that others will follow their lead. To give, please click on our Make a Donation button and type in Delaware Black Caucus Haiti Relief Fund. For the official press release announcing the Gilliam Foundation's pledge, click here.

HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF -- How can you help? The Delaware Black Caucus has just established an emergency relief fund at the Delaware Community Foundation in response to Haiti's devastating earthquake. If you wish to help with relief efforts, please click on our Make a Donation button and type in Delaware Black Caucus Haiti Relief Fund.

SAVE THE DATE! The Next Generation will present $25,000 in grants to five nonprofit organizations that help connect at-risk youth that promote success in and out of school at their Annual Grants Reception on March 10 beginning at 5:30 p.m. If you are a young professional who would like to attend their evening event at the University & Whist Club in Wilmington, call 302.504.5230.

Over the past year, the Delaware Community Foundation has found countless ways to connect people who care to the causes they care about. Our grantmaking in 2009 totaled more than $15 million, a record amount. To learn more about our grantmaking and the good work of the "people who care" who are part of the DCF family, please check out our 2009 Annual Report, Connecting People Who Care.

What's the "Good News" at the Delaware Community Foundation? Check out our new newsletter, Connecting People, Building Communities! You'll see how some of Delaware's nonprofits are using their capital and program grants to help Delawareans throughout the state and you'll learn about many of the "people who care" in Delaware. Don't miss our Fall 2009 edition!

Nonprofits throughout Delaware are struggling to help more and more Delawareans in this exceptionally difficult economy. See what the Delaware Community Foundation and other members of the Delaware Philanthropy Forum learned from their new study, “Philanthropy in the First State:  Delaware's Nonprofits, Individual Donors, and Grantmaking Organizations.” For a copy of the Executive Summary of the report, click here.

It’s time for a very special “sweet sixteen” celebration for the 1,000+ Founders of the Fund For Women. When the Fund was established in 1993, the original 16 Founders set two lofty goals -- to recruit 1,000 Founders who would each contribute $1,000 and to fund a $1 million endowment with the Delaware Community Foundation. The Fund’s endowment now stands at $2.3 million and they have awarded more than $1.2 million to 216 nonprofit programs dedicated to enhancing the worth and potential of women and girls in Delaware. And, now they have their 1,000 Founder! Are you one in 1,000+ who recognizes the power of collective giving? Check here!

Last year the Delaware Community Foundation supported local students by awarding over 250 scholarships ranging from $300 to $3,500 for a total of more nearly $300,000. Click here to find a complete alphabetical listing of the scholarships we have available. Or, you can download our Delaware Community Foundation Scholarship Compendium, Scholarships Awarded Fall 2010. In this guide, you’ll find the criteria for each award. The submission deadline for most of our scholarships is April 1, 2010. 

At their first annual statewide meeting, The African American Empowerment Fund of Delaware elected their new Board of Directors. For the official press release, click here.

delcf.org is under construction! So, please bear with us while we prepare to launch a new, more interactive version of our website.