Zenkoku Community Foundation Association

What Zenkoku Community Foundation Association does

全国コミュニティ財団協会 (Zenkoku Community Foundation Association / CFJ) is a Kyoto-based general incorporated association (一般社団法人) established on 2014-06-17 that serves as the national membership organization for community foundations across Japan. Its core function is to support the establishment, operation, and capacity-building of regional community foundations — non-profit entities that intermediate local donations and channel them into grants addressing community social issues. CFJ connects 25+ member foundations spanning Hokkaido to Okinawa and provides governance guidance, training, peer-learning forums (including an annual national conference), and codified standards such as the Community Foundation Guidelines.

CFJ's revenue model rests on three streams: tiered annual membership dues (50,000 yen for Regular Members, 30,000 yen for Associate Members, 100,000 yen for Supporting Members), the administration of dormant-deposit grant programs as a designated fund distribution organization (資金分配団体) for JANPIA, and small revenue from the sale of educational publications (e.g., コミュニティ財団のつくり方 at 3,300 yen). The dormant-deposit program is the largest by scale — projects exceeding 150 million yen have been administered across the 2020 emergency round, 2020–2023 standard rounds, and the 2025 round — though these are largely pass-through funds. GTM is sales-led via the website application portal, annual conference, regional information sessions, webinars, and partnerships with regional NPO centers.

The organization operates with a small governance structure of 11 directors and 2 auditors under a remote-work policy. In 2024, CFJ completed a third-party committee investigation over improper accounting in its 2016–2018 Japan Foundation grant business, repaying 34,513,000 yen and overhauling its leadership — a two-person co-CEO structure (高橋 潤 and 寶樂 陸寛) was inaugurated in 2025 alongside an expanded board with external directors. CFJ has no technology product or proprietary platform; its outputs are publications, training programs (notably the 2025 Project Design Training Consortium with Mirai Fund Okinawa), grant programs (including disaster response and collective-impact local fund establishment), and conferences (the 12th annual conference scheduled for March 2026).

Name

Zenkoku Community Foundation Association

Legal name

一般俊杰 全国コミュニティ財団協会

Website

https://cf-japan.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Short description

CFJ is a Kyoto-based general incorporated association (est. 2014) serving as the national membership body for Japan's 25+ community foundations, providing governance guidance, training, and administration of JANPIA-funded dormant-deposit grant programs to support new regional foundations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Philanthropic Association Services

NAICS

Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321), Professional Organizations (81392)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Community Foundations (BPAGAKAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

Keywords

• Community foundation services
• Nonprofit membership association
• Grant administration
• Philanthropic intermediation
• Civil society development

Headquarters

HQ city

Kyoto-shi

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees from member organizations. 正会員 (Regular Members) pay 50,000 yen per unit, 準会員 (Associate Members) pay 30,000 yen per unit, and 賛助会員 (Supporting Members) pay 100,000 yen per unit.
2. Dormant Deposit Projects (休眠預金活用事業): The association receives grants from JANPIA (一般財団法人日本民間公益活動連携機構) as a fund distribution organization (資金分配団体) to implement grant programs. These are project-based grants for supporting local fund development and program officer training.
3. Publication Sales: Sales of educational publications such as 'コミュニティ財団のつくり方' (3,300 yen) and PO textbooks to support community foundation development.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Zenkoku Community Foundation Association (CFJ) is a general incorporated association that serves as Japan's national membership organization for community foundations. It supports the establishment and operation of regional community foundations through membership services, training programs, annual conferences, and administration of dormant-deposit-funded grant programs that channel funding to emerging community foundations across Japan.

Product overview

Zenkoku Community Foundation Association (全国コミュニティ財団協会) is a general incorporated association that serves as the national organization for community foundations in Japan. Rather than offering a unified software product, the association provides a portfolio of knowledge products and programs including educational publications (books on establishing community foundations and program officer training textbooks), grant programs funded by dormant deposits (supporting local fund establishment and human resource development), training programs (community leadership development through regional roundtable meetings), and annual conferences for knowledge sharing. The association focuses on facilitating capital circulation in local communities through citizen-led community foundations, supporting disaster relief funds, and providing establishment support for new community foundations across Japan.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CFJ Membership Program (正会員・準会員・賛助会員)
• 「コミュニティ財団のつくり方」(How to Create a Community Foundation)

Quantifiable outcome

• Supported establishment of 8+ new community foundations through dormant deposit projects
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and secondary.

• 公益財団法人 みらいファンド沖縄 (Mirai Fund Okinawa)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025CFJ formed a consortium with Mirai Fund Okinawa to implement the 'Project Design Training Consortium' as part of the 2025 dormant deposit support program. This partnership focuses on training program directors (PD) and program officers (PO) for community foundations in regional areas. The partnership combines CFJ's national network and community foundation expertise with Mirai Fund Okinawa's local round-table meeting methodology.
• 認定特定非営利活動法人ETIC.minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 January 2025ETIC. collaborates with CFJ in implementing the disaster support grant program, providing expertise in social entrepreneurship and disaster response coordination.
• 全国レガシーギフト協会 (National Legacy Gift Association)secondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 November 2016CFJ helped establish and is a founding member of the National Legacy Gift Association, Japan's first national platform for legacy giving consultations and referrals. CFJ会长深尾昌峰 served as vice-representative director. This partnership promotes legacy donations as a sustainable funding source for community foundations.
• 日本政策金融公庫 (Japan Policy Finance Corporation)secondaryStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2015CFJ partnered with Japan Policy Finance Corporation (JFC) to support social businesses addressing regional community issues. The partnership leverages JFC's policy finance functions and CFJ's donation intermediation capabilities to provide comprehensive support for social business operators.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Community Foundations of Canada: National membership association representing ~191 Canadian community foundations. Closely mirrors CFJ in role (member support, knowledge sharing, advocacy) and member-fund-driven model, with comparable annual-conference and peer-learning offerings.
• Transatlantic Community Foundation Network: European-level network and learning community for community foundations. Comparable as a supra-national sibling organization whose members include country-level associations similar to CFJ; useful proxy for CFJ's potential role as Asia/Japan anchor.
• UK Community Foundations: UK-wide membership network of 47 accredited community foundations. Comparable in mission (national association for regional foundations), services (training, advocacy, grantmaking), and member-driven GTM, with deeper grantmaking operation through partnerships like the #iwill Fund.
• CFLeads: U.S. national network of community foundations — the closest direct counterpart to CFJ. Operates as a membership-and-learning network for ~300 U.S. community foundations, providing peer exchange, leadership development, and advocacy. Highly comparable in mission, structure, and GTM (membership recruitment + convening + training).

Broad incumbents

• Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS): Global network of philanthropy-support organizations, including associations and infrastructure bodies analogous to CFJ. Comparable as a peer-membership association for the philanthropic infrastructure sector, though operating globally rather than nationally.
• Council on Foundations: Large U.S.-based membership organization for the broader philanthropic sector (community foundations plus private, corporate, family, and operating foundations). Comparable in function (membership network, advocacy, knowledge products) but materially larger and broader in scope than CFJ's community-foundation focus.

Others

• JANPIA (Japan NPO Center for Active Innovation): Designating body for dormant-deposit fund distribution organizations in Japan. CFJ is a grantee/partner rather than a competitor — JANPIA's role as the dormant-deposit program's allocating institution makes it the single most consequential counterparty to CFJ's operations.

Regional players

• Philanthropy Japan: Japanese philanthropy-promotion organization focused on legacy giving and donor education. Comparable as a domestic peer ecosystem participant adjacent to CFJ's work in legacy-gift intermediation and donor mobilization, especially given CFJ's co-founding role in the National Legacy Gift Association.
• Japan NPO Center: Leading Japanese intermediary-support organization for NPOs. Comparable as a domestic peer providing capacity-building, advocacy, and grantmaking infrastructure to nonprofits, though with broader NPO scope rather than community-foundation specialization; a potential partnership and overlap source for CFJ.

Emerging players

• Community Foundation Initiative (Global Fund for Community Foundations): International organization dedicated to seeding and supporting community foundations, particularly in the Global South. Comparable in mission (community-foundation development and capacity-building) though operating through grantmaking rather than membership, and at global rather than national scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PLsylrDxMQrIXfH82iqnVDVVGFxKtt4TLo
• Facebookfacebook.com/people/%E5%85%A8%E5%9B%BD%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9F%E3%83%A5%E3%83%8B%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E8%B2%A1%E5%9B%A3%E5%8D%94%E5%93%A1%E5%8D%8F%E4%BC%9A/61552369793171

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Zenkoku Community Foundation Association