The Community Foundation Alliance was incorporated in March 1991 after Lilly Endowment announced its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) Initiative in the summer of 1990. From the beginning, the Alliance was designed to be a regional structure serving counties throughout southwestern Indiana.

Alliance organizers believed that the regional structure would allow centralized, cost-effective administration and governance of the organization. Alliance leadership also believed that the best organization would serve willing partners. Rather than creating a separate charitable non-profit corporation, a county could choose to join the Alliance by becoming an affiliate, through the creation of a named Foundation fund to serve its community.

Each county affiliate is guided by local volunteers focused on impactful grantmaking, asset development, and community leadership.

Today, the Community Foundation Alliance holds more than 1,200 named funds established by individuals, families, businesses, civic groups, and agencies to improve the quality of life in their local communities, with charitable assets over $148 million.