The Foundation Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in New York City. The Center’s stated mission is "to strengthen the social sector by advancing knowledge about philanthropy in the U.S. and around the world." The Center maintains comprehensive databases on grantmakers and their grants; issues a wide variety of print, electronic, and online information resources; conducts and publishes research on trends in foundation growth, giving, and practice; and offers education and training programs online and at its five regional library/learning centers and global network of more than 450 funding information centers known as Cooperating Collections.

The president of the organization is Bradford K. Smith.

In the mid-1950s, John Gardner, F. Emerson Andrews, and other foundation leaders decided to create a "strategic gathering place for knowledge about foundations," positing that transparency would be the best defense against congressional inquiries about private foundation activities and spending. Hence the Foundation Center--known then as the Foundation Library Center--opened in New York City on November 26, 1956. Its founding president was F. Emerson Andrews of the Russell Sage Foundation and author of Foundation Watcher. To achieve its goal of providing broad, open access to foundation information, the Center began in 1959 to establish depositories of information in other libraries--now known as Cooperating Collections--nationwide. In 1960 it published the first Foundation Directory, which is still being published annually. In 1968, the organization’s name was officially changed to the Foundation Center, signifying expansion of its services and activities beyond that of a library.