About Us

Mission

The mission of CKCF is Building  Stronger Communities Through Charitable Giving. Located in Newton, CKCF is a host foundation to 19 affiliates in the central Kansas region, supporting rural philanthropy.

History

The CKCF based in Newton, Kansas is thriving as a viable community foundation serving Newton while also being host to numerous affiliate community foundations throughout central Kansas.

The Central Kansas Community Foundation was originally founded in 1994. Following a stable history serving a tri-county area the foundation merged in 2009 with the well-established Greater Newton Community Foundation. Today, the CKCF continues to demonstrate a commitment to strengthening communities across the entire Central Kansas region.

What We Do

CKCF acts as a steward, protecting your charitable dollars and watching out for your interests even after you’re gone. We get to know you, as well as your philanthropic interests and concerns, in order to ensure that the gift you leave to your community through the foundation is always used in the manner you intended, and to the best possible effect.

The Foundation provides:

Personalized services, tools and resources that fit donor aspirations and community needs;
Solutions to make giving an easy, flexible and effective process;
Local expertise and in-depth understanding of community challenges and needs; and
Community leadership in meeting those challenges and needs.

The long-term goal of our community foundation is to build permanent funds supported by many donors. CKCF presently has over $28 million in charitable assets under management. In 2022 they made a $1.5 million dollar impact to the charitable sector with grants and scholarships.

Service Area

Our Central Kansas Service is home to the host foundation Central Kansas Community Foundation and our 19 Affiliate Foundations. View our Service Area Map to see where our affiliate foundations are located.

Higher Standards

Central Kansas Community Foundation has recently been accredited with National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations®—the highest standards for philanthropic excellence.

We work to support the causes our communities care about. National Standards says that we meet the most rigorous standards in philanthropy and is a promise to our community that we’ll continue to do this good work together, right here in Newton.

National Standards is not mandatory. We chose to go above and beyond by affirming our commitment to excellence and accountability. Our accreditation provides assurance that we have sound policies and practices in place. In short, it means we meet the highest standards for local giving.

To receive accreditation with National Standards, CKCF submitted our policies and procedures to a rigorous review of 41 National Standards in six key areas of community foundation operations, including donor services, investment management, grantmaking and administration.

The National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations® program was established in 2000 in cooperation with the Council on Foundations. For more information about National Standards, visit www.cfstandards.org.

In addition, CKCF is a member of the Kansas Association of Community Foundations.