Corporate Giving Climbs - US Report
22 May 2008 at 1:38 pm
According to the latest US figures, corporate giving rose by close to 7 percent to $US4.4 Billion in 2007.
Corporate foundation giving grew by an estimated 6.6 percent in 2007, from $4.1 billion to a record $4.4 billion.
Figures released by the Foundation Centre based in New York show growth in giving by corporate foundations has fluctuated in recent years.
In 2005, strong corporate profits and exceptional giving in response to the South Asian tsunami and Gulf Coast hurricanes led to a double-digit increase in funding.
In the absence of major catastrophic events in the following year, a return to lower levels of corporate foundation giving might have been expected. Yet the figures show corporate foundations in fact posted a modest 2.6 percent rise.
The Foundation Centre says Aan important factor contributing to the growth in giving in 2006 and again in 2007 has been the steady increase in new gifts coming from corporations into their foundations.
In each of the past two years, gifts into corporate foundations rose over 9 percent, and in 2006 new gifts totalled $4.4 billion.
Like independent foundations, corporate foundations in the US must pay out each year at least 5 percent of the value of their assets in the preceding year. However, because corporate foundations generally make grants based on annual contributions from their companies and retain relatively few assets, their ratio of giving to assets tends to be much higher.
Thus, estimated giving in 2007 represented 22 percent of corporate foundations’ $19.7 billion in assets at the close of 2006, a slight decrease from 23 percent in the previous year.
Overall the US’s more than 72,000 grantmaking foundations increased their giving to $42.9 billion in 2007, according to Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates: Current Outlook (2008 Edition). This estimated 10 percent gain followed a 7.1 percent increase in 2006.
Contributing to this rise was close to 12 percent growth in foundation assets in 2006.
Some additional key results include:
– 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.
– Community foundations raised their giving by 13.9 percent in 2007, up from 11.8 percent growth in 2006 — the fourth consecutive year of double-digit increases.
The full report can be downloaded at: www.foundationcenter.org
