Many Calif. Counties Overlooked by Foundations

According to a new report by the James Irvine Foundation, private foundations focus their giving on urban areas in California, to the detriment of other needy areas, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

In its study of 50 foundations, the Irvine Foundation reports that while San Francisco received $678 in foundation grants per capita in 2003, 18 inland and northern counties in California got less than $10 per capita. Since foundations get most of their money from private donors, who tend to help people near the areas in which they live, low-income areas with fewer rich people sometimes struggle, says the report.

“A lot of the wealth that is in the valley is tied up in land and other resources, so people tend to be land-rich and cash-poor,” says Carol Whiteside, president of the Great Valley Center, a think tank that works in the Central Valley.