U.S. Foundations Sent $35 Billion Overseas in 5 Years, Half of It From Gates

International grants grew by nearly one-third from 2011 to 2015, propelled largely by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which accounted for more than half of the global grants from U.S. foundations during the five-year period.

In 2011, foundations made $7.2 billion in international grants, according to a study released today by the Foundation Center and the Council on Foundations. In 2015, that number topped $9 billion.

During the period studied, grant makers sent $35.4 billion to international projects. Nearly $18 billion of the total originated in the Seattle offices of the Gates Foundation.

The grant maker hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down in the years since. In 2016, the most recent year for which figures are available, it spent $4 billion internationally on global development, health, and policy programs.

In addition to longstanding efforts to develop vaccines, the foundation has introduced several new international programs in the past three years.

In 2015, the Seattle philanthropy giant announced a six-year, $776 million pledge to fight malnutrition, earmarked $80 million to collect data on social issues faced by women and girls and to promote gender equity worldwide, and set aside $68 million for a new program to improve education in developing countries.

Can’t Do It All

Although Gates dominates U.S. philanthropic giving to international causes, its total assets of nearly $52 billion are roughly equal to a single year of federal government spending on development and international aid.

In a report last year, Bill and Melinda Gates warned that any wavering of public support of those efforts would put global health and development goals at risk and lead to millions of preventable deaths.

Community-foundation grant making more than tripled from 2011 through 2015, according to the study. Those grants totaled $910 million during that period. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which over the past decade has upended the notion that community foundations should focus only on their backyards, accounted for nearly half of money regional grant makers sent overseas.

The report also found:

• Only about 12 percent of the money given internationally went directly to organizations in the nation being served by the grant.
• More than half of the grants were directed to improving health.
• After the Gates Foundation, the top three private foundations were the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Open Society Foundations.
• Following the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the top community foundations were the Foundation for the Carolinas, the Seattle Foundation, and the Boston Foundation.
• The Coca-Cola Foundation was the largest corporate donor. Its $286 million in grants were nearly double the contributions of the Citi Foundation, which was second on the list, followed by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that foundations gave $7.2 million instead of billion.