Study Tallies 260,000 Foundations Worldwide, With Education as Top Cause

Title: Global Philanthropy Report: Perspectives of the Global Foundation Sector

Organization: Hauser Institute for Civil Society at Harvard University

Summary: More than 260,000 foundations — independent, family, corporate, community, and government-linked grant makers — exist in 39 countries throughout the world, the study found. More than 90 percent of them identify as independent, with most of those found in the United States and Europe. Nearly three-quarters of all of the foundations in the study were established in the last 25 years.

Among the findings:

• Assets of individual foundations are relatively modest, with more than 90 percent reporting assets of less than $10 million and nearly half reporting assets of less than $1 million.
• Education is the top cause globally, with 35.1 percent of foundations focusing at least some of their grants toward education, while 21.2 percent give to human services and social welfare.
• Health causes attract 20.4 percent of grants, and arts and culture get about 18 percent.
• There appears to be a shift among foundations toward giving jointly and public fundraising efforts and a move away from a single foundation providing the lion’s share of funding.
• Corporate foundations are the most common model in Latin America (50 percent), while government-linked foundations are most common in the United Arab Emirates (73 percent) and in China (38 percent).