Measuring Success

The staff and board members of the Community Foundation strive to acheive the highest standards of performance in all that we do, with the goal of ensuring that our donors' charitable objectives are met. To that end, we've developed indicators to measure the effectiveness of our grantmaking and report back to the community.

Although we make grants for a variety of purposes and to a variety of causes, we've found that much of our grantmaking falls into four broad categories:

Community Leadership
The Community Foundation is creating a leadership ladder to engage children, teens, adults and seniors in our community. Two parts of the ladder are already in place: the Youth Advisory Committee and the Greater Reading Leadership Alliance.

Education
The Community Foundation uses its resources to improve the quality of education in the county. While much of the funding is dedicated to scholarships for Berks County students, some donors have chosen to fund educational programs in the schools.

Healthcare
The Community Foundation has several funds that are dedicated to improving healthcare in the county.

Sustainable Communities
This wide-reaching category includes programs and initiatives that improve the overall quality of life in Berks County. Funding in this category includes farmland preservation, smart growth, downtown improvement, and environmentally friendly building and energy usage.

By clicking on the links above, you will learn about our initiatives in each area and can evaluate our progress.