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Giving to foundations

The Foundation Center and Giving USA estimate that giving to foundations in 2008 was $32.65 billion.

This is a decline of 19. 2 percent (­ 22. 2 percent adjusted for inflation) from the revised value of $40.43 billion for 2007. The figure for 2007 is based on IRS Forms 990 and 990­PF as analyzed by the Foundation Center.

Gifts to foundations are an estimated 11 percent of total giving.

 

Giving USA findings Foundations included in this estimate are independent, community or operating foundations that are not established by corporations. Inde­ pendent foundations are also some­ times called private foundations; independent foundations include family foundations. 1 The estimate for giving to foundations is based on the historical record of foundation gifts as a percentage of combined individual and bequest giving.

The estimate of gifts to foundations in 2008 does not include payments by Warren Buffett on his pledge to the Gates Foundation. Mr. Buffett’s gifts to the Gates Foundation are intended to be distributed within a few years of their receipt. They will be tracked in Giving USA as part of foundation grantmaking.

Estimated donations to foundations are 13 percent of combined individual and charitable bequest giving for 2008. That percentage is consistent with gifts to foundations as a share of combined individual giving and charitable bequests from 1997 through 2006.

Using FoundationSearch.com to search for foundations newly registered in

2008, Giving USA finds more than 3,000 new foundations of all types (including corporate) reported on IRS records (as of March 2009). 2 This includes trusts and scholarship funds. Gifts to new foundations will be tabulated when those entities file their first IRS Forms 990­PF. Not all newly registered foundations were grantmaking by 2007, therefore not all were tracked by FoundationSearch.

Trends in giving to foundations Using Giving USA data, two different ways of measuring trends in giving to foundations are presented. The first looks at giving to foundations during recession years. The second shows the trend in giving to foundations over time, measured per household (including all foundation donations divided by all households).

In prior recession years from 1978 to 2006, giving to foundations averaged an inflation­adjusted increase of 6. 85 percent from the prior year. The range was from a decrease of nearly 21. 9 percent (1980) to growth of 57. 6 per­ cent (1982). Giving to this subsector increased (adjusted for inflation) in four of the six recession years from 1978 to 2006.3