Largest Foundations Gave a Record $9.7-Billion in 1998, New Report Says

The booming stock market helped America’s wealthiest foundations give $9.7-billion in 1998

— more than was awarded in any previous year, according to a new report by the Foundation Center.

Giving rose by 22 percent — or $1.8-billion — from 1997 to 1998. The number of grants made by those foundations also rose — by 13 percent, to 97,220.

Of those grants, 350 were worth $2.5-million or more, up from 226 grants that size in 1997.

One reason for the growth in giving and the increased size of grants: Foundation assets have been soaring because of the strong stock market, and by law, foundations are required to give away 5 percent of their investment assets each year, on average.

Foundation Giving Trends is an analysis of 1998 giving based on a sample of more than 97,000 grants of $10,000 or more reported by 1,009 foundations. While those foundations represent only 2 percent of the total number of active U.S. grant-making foundations, they awarded about half of all foundation grant dollars reported in 1998.

The 100 wealthiest foundations increased their giving at a greater rate than did the other foundations in the sample. Grant dollars awarded by the top 100 increased 25 percent and the number of grants rose 15 percent; the other foundations reported an 18-percent rise in grant dollars and about a 12-percent growth in grants.

Almost every type of non-profit endeavor received an increase in both grant dollars and the number of grants received. Some of the report’s key findings by subject area:

Education. Support for education grew by 24 percent, to $2.4-billion, in 1998, and captured the largest share of foundation dollars. A big factor in the 1998 growth: The Danforth Foundation, in St. Louis, gave $90.9-million to Washington University.

Health. The health field captured the second largest share of dollars, or 17 percent. Medical-research grants jumped 39 percent in 1998, accounting for 22 percent of total health dollars, up from 19 percent in 1997.

However, not all health areas saw gains. Dollars for mental health fell 17 percent, from $191-million to $159-million. Awards to charities that fight and treat diseases also dropped, by almost 10 percent, to $138-million.

Human services. Organizations that provide such services received 15 percent of all grant dollars — about $1.5-billion — its lowest share since 1993. But human-services groups received 24 percent of the total number of grants made by foundations, its highest level since 1989.

Arts and culture. Dollars to the arts grew by 42 percent, to $1.4-billion, or 15 per cent of all grant dollars.

Dollars to museums grew by 51 percent to $479,427, and for the first time museums received a larger share of grant dollars than the performing arts.

Environment. The percentage of dollars to charities that deal with the environment, animals, and wildlife grew to nearly 6 percent, up from 5 percent in 1997. Grant dollars grew by 30 percent, from $414.3-million to $539.8-million. Organizations that protect the environment received five times as much money as charities devoted to animals and wildlife.

The Foundation Center also analyzed how foundation giving to specific causes compared to donations from all private sources — individuals, corporations, and foundations. The priorities of private donors — more than 80 percent of whom are individual Americans — differ in striking ways. While foundations provided their largest share of dollars to education groups (37 percent), only 14 percent of all private donor dollars went to such groups, according to Giving USA, published by the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel’s Trust for Philanthropy.

The top choice for private donors was religious groups, which garnered 44 percent of the dollars they gave. By contrast, foundations awarded only 2 percent of their grant dollars to religious groups.

Foundation Giving Trends is part of the “Foundations Today Series” and can only be ordered through an annual subscription. To order, call (800) 424-9836 or (212) 807-3690, or go to http://fdncenter.org. Prepayment of $95 is required.