How the Foundation Survey Was Conducted

The Chronicle’s annual survey of foundation giving is based on financial information provided by 126 of the largest private foundations in the country.

A total of 162 foundations were asked to participate. Most of the foundations were selected based on lists of the largest grant makers compiled by the Foundation Center in New York. The lists, based on information from 1995, 1996, and 1997, rank foundations by the size of their assets and by the amount of money 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 funds that responded said that their figures for 1997 and 1998 were estimated or unaudited.

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 financial status or giving priorities. Many funds pledge large sums of money and then pay it out over several years.

The budget for grants approved at the Annenberg Foundation in St. David’s, Pa., for example, has dropped over the last several years while the amount of money it has paid out in grants each year has grown. That’s because the fund continues to make payments on its five-year, $500-million pledge to help improve public schools. It announced the pledge in 1993 and started distributing the money the following year.

At the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in Reno, the amount of grants approved in 1997 — $40-million for the fiscal year that ends this week — was nearly four times its budget for the prior year. That’s because the fund recently made a pledge to spend $20-million on efforts to prevent the eye disease trachoma. The dollar amounts of its grants typically are much smaller.

Officials at some of the funds that did not participate in the survey said they had few staff members and therefore could not respond.

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.)

Callaway Foundation (La Grange, Ga.)

J. Bulow Campbell Foundation (Atlanta)

Eugene B. Casey Foundation (Gaithersburg, Md.)

Clark Foundation (New York)

Charles A. Dana Foundation (New York)

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

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

Ellwood Foundation (Houston)

Sherman Fairchild Foundation (Greenwich, Conn.)

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation (New York)

Herrick Foundation (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)

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

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

John W. Kluge Foundation (Columbia, Md.)

Lied Foundation Trust (Las Vegas, Nev.)

Lincy Foundation (Las Vegas, Nev.)

Maclellan Foundation (Chattanooga, Tenn.)

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

James S. McDonnell Foundation (St. Louis)

Richard King Mellon Foundation (Pittsburgh)

Milken Family Foundation (Santa Monica, Cal.)

Ambrose Monell Foundation (New York)

Polk Brothers Foundation (Chicago)

Pritzker Foundation (Chicago)

Smith Richardson Foundation (Westport, Conn.)

Sarah Scaife Foundation (Pittsburgh)

Dr. Scholl Foundation (Chicago)

Florence and John Schumann Foundation (Montclair, N.J.)

Spring Creek Art Foundation (West Palm, Fla.)

Starr Foundation (New York)

Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation (Oakland, Cal.)

Walton Family Foundation (Bentonville, Ark.)

William K. Warren Foundation (Tulsa, Okla.)

Wortham Foundation (Houston)

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