As the Commonwealth agency for civil society, the foundation is funded by 49 member states to support participatory governance through its programmes.
The foundation provides resources, grants and access to platforms to encourage better engagement between civil society and institutions of governance.
With the aim of strengthening civil society and enhancing its contribution to development in the Commonwealth, the foundation now works with non-governmental and voluntary organisations, faith-based institutions, the media and trade unions.
The first chairman of the foundation was Nobel laureate Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet and the first director was John Chadwick.
Today, the chair of the foundation is Ambassador Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing, and the Director is Vijay Krishnarayan.
To develop the capacity of Civic Voices to tell their stories, act together and learn from each other to engage with the institutions that shape people's lives.
A few months later, the foundation awarded a grant that helped support the development of a Professional Centre in Kampala, Uganda.
[11] Today, several of these professional centres, or subsequent incarnations of them, continue to prosper as independent organisations (see external links below) but they are no longer funded by the foundation.
[12] With the foundation's encouragement and support (which included grants for travel and administrative costs), several other professional associations developed—including bodies working in the legal, veterinary and surveying fields.
Capacity Development is a locally driven process of learning by leaders, coalitions and other agents of change bringing about changes in socio-political, policy-related and organisational factors to enhance local ownership and improve effectiveness and efficiency of efforts to achieve a development goal.
The foundation believes that the individual, organisations and institutions involved should own and manage their own capacity development and use methodologies that contribute to sustainability.
The following partners were identified via a stakeholder analysis as coming from the Commonwealth Family, multilateral organisations and international development agencies and the private sector.
The Programme brokers knowledge and ideas and supports innovation, replicable and sustainable models, and promotes good practice across the participatory governance sector.
In addition to receiving reports on grants made by the foundation, the committee is called upon to make decisions on larger awards.
To promote sustainability, grant applicants will be encouraged to seek co-funding and provide a counterpart in the form of in-kind or financial resources to support the funding request to the foundation.
With the support of the Commonwealth Foundation, civil society participation in CHOGM and Ministerial Meetings has been steadily increasing since the late 1990s.
Civil society participation in Ministerial Meetings on finance, women's affairs, HIPC and health has been particularly significant.
Reflecting the themes of the meetings, statements have been published on "Financing for Development" (2002); "The Provision of Essential Services" (2003); "Capacity of International Institutions to Support Pro-Poor Trade Liberalisation in Low-Income and Vulnerable Countries" (2004); and "Giving Practical Effect to the Millennium Project Review" (2005).
Each year, civil society organisations met immediately ahead of the Ministers Meeting to prepare the statements.