How The Chronicle’s Survey of Top Private Foundations Was Conducted

The Chronicle’s annual survey is based on financial information provided by 142 of the largest private foundations in the country.

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Full results of survey

The funds in the survey held combined assets of $154.4-billion at the end of last year (not counting four funds that did not report endowment size), and made more than $7.7-billion in grants.

A total of 180 foundations were asked to participate. Most of the funds were selected based on lists of the largest grant makers compiled by the Foundation Center, in New York. The lists, based on data from 1996, 1997, and 1998, rank funds by the size of their assets and by the amount they give away each year. Other funds were included in the survey because they have ranked among the largest in the past, or they are expected to join the lists based on their most recent asset figures.

Most of the foundations that responded said their figures for 1998 and 1999 were estimated or unaudited and are therefore subject to some change. Three foundations — the Richard and Helen DeVos, El Pomar, and W. M. Keck Foundations — declined to provide year-end asset figures, as did the Soros foundations network, which, unlike almost all other private foundations, spends nearly all of the money it receives each year from its benefactor, the financier George Soros.

The country’s wealthiest foundation, the Lilly Endowment, declined to provide a 1998 asset figure. A figure was derived based on the 170 million shares of stock the fund holds in Eli Lilly and Company.

Caution must be taken in examining the amount a foundation gives from year to year. A sharp decrease from one year to the next in the amount of grants approved, for example, may not necessarily indicate a change in a foundation’s status or giving priorities. Many foundations pledge large sums of money that they then pay out over several years.

Readers of the survey results should keep in mind that foundations have differing conventions for counting the number of grants awarded. For example, one foundation may count each scholarship it awards as a separate grant, while another may count all the money that goes to its scholarship program as a single grant.

In some cases, the number of grants reported by foundations may undercount the number of organizations that actually receive money from the foundation. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, for example, reported that its single largest award last year was $1.6-million for a special project to educate the public about national health-care policy. But the grant was actually split among several groups, including the Greater Washington Education Telecommunications Association and the League of Women Voters Education Fund.

At the same time, the number of grants reported in some cases may overestimate the number of opportunities for non-profit organizations to compete for grant money. Since some funds award money to their own foundation-run programs, all the grants do not represent proposals chosen through a competitive application process.

One private foundation that gives away enough money each year to qualify for the Chronicle‘s survey was not included because it is financed completely by grants from other foundations on the list. The Energy Foundation, in San Francisco, does not have a traditional endowment. Instead, it collects money each year from a handful of other foundations and then awards its own grants. Last year, the Energy Foundation made 115 awards, totaling more than $11-million.

Officials at some of the foundations that did not participate in the survey said they had too few staff members and therefore did not have time to respond. Others said they had a policy that prohibited them from responding to questionnaires.

Following are the grant makers that declined to participate in the survey or did not respond to repeated requests for information:

Altman Foundation (New York)

Andersen Foundation (Bayport, Minn.)

Buffett Foundation (Omaha)

J. Bulow Campbell Foundation (Atlanta)

Eugene B. Casey Foundation (Gaithersburg, Md.)

Cullen Foundation (Houston)

Charles A. Dana Foundation (New York)

Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation (West Palm Beach, Fla.)

George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation (Salt Lake City)

Sherman Fairchild Foundation (Greenwich, Conn.)

Ford Family Foundation (Roseburg, Ore.)

Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation (Midland, Mich.)

Gilder Foundation (New York)

Henry L. Guenther Foundation (Los Angeles)

Herrick Foundation (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)

Ingram Charitable Fund (Nashville)

Harvey and Bernice Jones Charitable Trust (Springdale, Ark.)

William T. Kemper Charitable Trust (Kansas City, Mo.)

William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust (Chapel Hill, N.C.)

Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation (Los Angeles)

Lied Foundation Trust (Las Vegas)

Lincy Foundation (Las Vegas)

G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation (Mount Kisco, N.Y.)

James S. McDonnell Foundation (St. Louis)

Richard King Mellon Foundation (Pittsburgh)

Ambrose Monell Foundation (New York)

Moriah Fund (Washington)

Jane B. Pettit Foundation (Milwaukee)

Pritzker Foundation (Chicago)

Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation (New York)

Sarah Scaife Foundation (Pittsburgh)

Skirball Foundation (New York)

Starr Foundation (New York)

Judy and Michael Steinhardt Foundation (New York)

Timken Foundation of Canton (Ohio)

Tisch Foundation (New York)

William K. Warren Foundation (Tulsa, Okla.)

Wexner Foundation (New Albany, Ohio)

The survey was compiled under the direction of Debra E. Blum and Marina Dundjerski with the assistance of Kristen Batch.