Grant Makers’ Overhead Costs: Corrected Figures

June 15, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Due to errors in one version of the questionnaire The Chronicle sent to the nation’s largest private foundations

ALSO SEE:

Table: Internet Giving: How Much Charities Have Raised in The Past Five Years

for its annual survey of grant making (March 23), figures for administrative and compensation costs in the 2005 fiscal year were misreported for 19 foundations in the survey.

Those errors resulted in inaccurate percentages being calculated to measure the amount of each foundation’s grant dollar being spent on administrative costs and on compensation of officers, directors, and trustees.

Revised figures for 18 foundations appear in the accompanying chart; the figures were derived from Form 990-PF, the informational tax form foundations must file with the Internal Revenue Service, and from interviews with foundation officials; in some cases, the figures for 2005 were estimates made by foundation staff members.

One organization, the Grable Foundation, in Pittsburgh, opted not to report administrative and compensation costs for its fiscal year ending December 31, 2005 because those figures are still being calculated.

To compare the results of these foundations with others that reported their costs to The Chronicle and were published in March, see the foundation data online at http://philanthropy.com/premium/stats/foundation/

HOW MUCH FOUNDATIONS SPENT ON ADMINISTRATION AND COMPENSATION
	Administrative costs	Compensation costs	Grants paid	Percentage of grant dollar spent on administrative costs	Percentage of a grant dollar spent on compensation
Cannon Foundation (Concord, N.C.)	$327,475	$139,322	$9,100,000	3.6%	1.5%
Marguerite Casey Foundation (Seattle)	4,642,774	106,667	27,685,300	16.8	0.4
Comer Science & Education Foundation (Chicago)	1,824,000	611,000	15,801,755	11.5	3.9
Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation (Indianapolis)	395,943	143,312	11,496,340	3.4	1.2
William T. Grant Foundation (New York)	3,282,122	868,150	13,955,131	23.5	6.2
Inasmuch Foundation/Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation (Oklahoma City)	854,914	352,743	10,631,868	8.0	3.3
Kohlberg Foundation (Mount Kisco, N.Y.)	722,000	0	12,970,200	5.6	0.0
Koret Foundation (San Francisco)	2,165,502	613,245	20,379,734	10.6	3.0
Kronkosky Charitable Foundation (San Antonio)	1,320,000	190,000	11,717,955	11.3	1.6
Fred A. Lennon Charitable Trust (Beachwood, Ohio)	1,000,000	80,000	6,584,500	15.2	1.2
Lumina Foundation for Education (Indianapolis)	8,350,730	1,848,726	48,441,722	17.2	3.8
J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation (Tulsa, Okla.)	480,473	360,272	33,393,442	1.4	1.1
Northwest Area Foundation (St. Paul) ¹	7,577,775	388,149	15,500,000	48.9	2.5
Picower Foundation (Palm Beach, Fla.)	2,800,000	25,000	27,662,893	10.1	0.1
T.L.L. Temple Foundation (Lufkin, Tex.)	508,204	312,331	14,772,983	3.4	2.1
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation (Owings Mills, Md.)	1,026,148	354,497	98,674,477	1.0	0.4
Whitaker Foundation (Arlington, Va.) ²	3,339,030	956,915	83,530,700	4.0	1.1
Yawkey Foundation II (Dedham, Mass.)	1,036,021	35,360	25,124,600	4.1	0.1
Note: Unless otherwise noted, figures are for each foundation’s 2005 fiscal year. 1. Figures are for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006. 2. Foundation plans to distribute all its assets in 2006.