California Grants Focus on Two Cities

Despite record growth in their assets in the past decade, California foundations made more than half of their grants in only two localities, the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, according to a new report.

The assets and giving of foundations in California tripled from 1991 to 1999, according to the report by the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, in Los Angeles. But nonprofit groups in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas — the state’s two largest metropolitan regions — received 52 percent of the $1.5-billion in grants made by California foundations in 1999, the most recent year for which data were available, the report said.

The trend left parts of the state, notably Southern California excluding Los Angeles, with foundation support that was below the statewide average of $28 in grant money per person, according to the report.

The report, “California Foundations: Trends and Patterns,” is available free from the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, University of Southern California, Lewis Hall, Room 210, Los Angeles, Calif. 90089-0626; (213) 740-9492.

The report also is online at http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/philanthropy/
research_projects.html#atlas.