January 22, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Members of the Association of Small Foundations lost an average of nearly 5 percent of their assets in 2002 but disbursed an average of 9.4 percent in grants that year, a new survey has found.
The association, in Bethesda, Md., compiled responses on giving and management from 1,137 foundations, about 40 percent of its membership. Member foundations range in size from $100,000 in assets to approximately $750-million, and all have no more than a handful of staff members.
Sixty-five percent of the group’s members distributed their grants locally. Education was the top cause, with 31 percent of the grant money devoted to it. Human services was second, at 18 percent, and health third, at 13 percent.
The median grant was $9,056, meaning that half the grants were larger and half smaller. Most of the group’s members said they did not expect to increase the size of their grants in 2003, even though many anticipated returns of 6 or 7 percent on their investments for the year. The data were collected in June and July last year.
Pressing Needs
About two-thirds of respondents represent family foundations, and the rest are independent, community, or corporate foundations. Sixty percent of the family foundations have younger family members who will be ready to get involved in the foundation in the next five years.
A report on the survey results said that 60 percent of respondents reimbursed board members for expenses incurred while on foundation business, and 23 percent paid board members for reviewing grant proposals, attending meetings, and engaging in other routine duties.
Respondents also said the three most pressing needs among small foundations last year were increasing assets or income, planning for leadership succession, and achieving greater effectiveness by concentrating grant making in fewer program areas.
The report said that nearly half of its member foundations were formed in the last decade. Twenty-one percent began 11 to 20 years ago, and 30 percent were more than 20 years old.
Copies of the report, “2003 Foundation Operations and Management Survey,” are available for $195 each from Association of Small Foundations, 4905 Del Ray Avenue, Suite 308, Bethesda, Md. 20814; (888) 212-9922; asf@smallfoundations.org.
