Community Development Foundations in Grassroots Governance: Roles, Challenges, and Empowerment

He Jiaoyao；Huang Dong*

doi:10.64649/yh.eg.issn3078-4794.20260302

Community Development Foundations in Grassroots Governance: Roles, Challenges, and Empowerment

期刊: 《Educational Guide》 DOI:10.64649/yh.eg.issn3078-4794.20260302 全文阅读返回期刊

He Jiaoyao；Huang Dong*

Yibin University, Yibin, Sichuan 644000, China.

摘要

Community development foundations are important carriers for modernizing grassroots governance and advancing community philanthropy. They are also key actors in integrating charitable resources, activating community public-interest vitality, and innovating grassroots governance in the new era. In grassroots governance, community development foundations can serve as aggregators of public resources and translators of needs. They can also act as weavers of collaborative networks and enablers of capacity. In addition, they can function as calibrators of governance norms and promoters of institutionalization. In recent years, the modernization of grassroots governance, the Five-Sector Linkage mechanism, and community philanthropy have created institutional space for these foundations to embed themselves in grassroots governance. Yet, from the perspectives of resource dependence and collaborative governance, community development foundations still face several challenges. These include blurred boundaries between government and society, limited organizational autonomy, weak resource mobilization, fragile public-interest ecosystems, and inadequate professional and digital support. To address these challenges, it is necessary to clarify the rights and responsibilities of government and foundations from the perspective of a governance community. It is also necessary to improve resource mobilization and public-interest ecosystem cultivation. Foundations should further strengthen their professional, digital, and platform-based capacities. In this way, community development foundations can shift from project funders to organizers of community philanthropic ecosystems and promoters of collaborative governance.

关键词

community development foundation; grassroots governance; community philanthropy; collaborative governance; digital empowerment

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