Community Foundation Giving Reaches Record High
14 August 2008 at 2:53 pm
Estimated giving by the US grantmaking community foundations rose to a record high in 2007 and they predict a further increase in 2008.
Community Grantmaking rose 14 percent in 2007 to a record $4.1 billion, according to Key Facts on Community Foundations, a new report from the Foundation Centre in the US.
Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of the community foundations surveyed expect to increase their giving in 2008.
Other key findings based on final 2006 data include:
– Community foundations accounted for 1 percent of U.S. grantmaking foundations but were responsible for 9 percent of giving
Forty-two percent of community foundations reported giving away more than $1 million
– The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation ranked first among community foundations by total giving in 2006, awarding more than $172 million
– Education and human services were the top giving priorities of the larger community foundations included in the Centre’s grants sample
Steven Lawrence, senior director of research at the Foundation Centre says that since the beginning of the 1990s, community foundation giving has grown more quickly than overall foundation giving in all but two years.
Lawrence says strong asset growth, new gifts and bequests from donors, and exceptional disbursements from donor-advised funds are the primary factors contributing to these gains.
Giving projections for 2007 are based on responses to the Foundation Centre’s 2008 "Foundation Giving Forecast Survey" from 214 of the nation’s largest community foundations, combined with year-end economic indicators.
The outlook for 2008 giving is based on the responses of 197 larger community foundations.
Independent and family foundations — which represent almost nine out of 10 foundations — raised their giving by 12.7 percent in 2007, up from an increase of 9 percent in 2006.
Corporate foundation giving rose 6.6 percent in 2007, following a modest 2.6 percent increase in 2006.
The report can be downloaded from the Gain Knowledge area of the Foundation Centre’s web site at http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/nationaltrends.html
