1 in 10 Foundations Offers Domestic-Partner Benefits, Survey Finds

One in 10 foundations offers medical or other benefits to its employees’ unmarried domestic partners,

according to a new survey by the Council on Foundations on grant makers’ benefits and personnel policies.

The survey, which is part of the council’s ninth edition of its Foundation Management Series, is based on data collected in 1998 from 494 foundations of varying structures and sizes. Three earlier volumes contained survey results on foundation finances and investment, governance, program, and staffing practices.

The council’s survey also found that three-fourths of all grant makers use performance evaluations to assess the work of their employees. However, private foundations are less likely than other funds to use performance evaluations.

Other survey highlights:

* The median cost of all benefits, including health-insurance coverage and pension plans, at all foundations was 20 per cent of total employee compensation, according to the survey. In 1994 the median cost of benefits was 25 per cent of compensation, the council said.

The median is the level at which half of the foundations in the survey pay a greater proportion of employee compensation in benefits and half pay a smaller proportion.

* More than 84 per cent of foundations provide health-insurance benefits to their employees. Among foundations with less than $5-million in assets, however, only about half provide medical insurance.

* All foundations with assets of $250-million or more offer a retirement plan to their employees, but many small grant makers do not. For example, only about half of all foundations with less than $5-million in assets offer a retirement plan; among community foundations of that size, only 31 per cent offer such a plan.

* More than 90 per cent of grant makers provide paid leave to their employees in addition to paying workers for vacation time and U.S. holidays.

The most common forms of paid leave are sick leave (91 per cent), time off for jury duty (82 per cent), bereavement leave (77 per cent), and personal or discretionary leave (70 per cent).

Copies of Foundation Management Series, Ninth Edition, Volume IV: Benefits and Personnel Policies are available from the Publications Department, Council on Foundations, P.O. Box 98293, Washington 20090; (888) 239-5221. The price is $40 for council members plus $5 for postage and handling, and $70 for non-members, plus $7 for postage and handling.

The study also can be ordered through the Council on Foundations’ World-Wide Web site at http://www.cof.org.