Decline in Giving Expected to Follow Drop of $150-Billion in Foundation Assets in 2008

The nation’s grant makers lost $150-billion in assets last year, a figure comparable to their total giving over the last four years, according to a study released last week.

The report, by the Foundation Center, in New York, examined giving by private, corporate, and community foundations. Total giving by those grant makers increased 2.8 percent from 2007 to 2008, the report said. However, when the nation’s largest foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, was excluded from the calculations, the increase in giving was just 1 percent.

But that may be the last increase for a couple of years. The Foundation Center said that giving is expected to decline “in the high single digits to the low double digits” in 2009, and further in 2010.

Community funds, which increased their giving more than private foundations or corporate grant makers from 2007 to 2008, are more likely to give less in 2009, the Foundation Center study found.

As for the outlook for giving in 2010, 20 percent of foundations that responded to the Foundation Center’s survey said they expected their giving to decrease next year, 39 percent expected to maintain giving levels, 14 percent said they would increase giving, and nearly 27 percent said they were unsure of the 2010 outlook for giving.

The Foundation Center’s study estimates that the country’s 75,000 grant makers held more than $530-billion in assets at the end of 2008. “Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates: Current Outlook” is available online.