A new report from the Foundation Center, among other things,
foundation giving in the US has reached a record high of $54.7 billion.
The report estimates that foundation giving will continue to grow at a
few points above inflation in 2014, with independent and family
foundations showing an even higher rate of growth. According to the
report, in 2012 the US was home to more than 86,000 foundations.
The
link above will take you to a one-page infographic/summary. From there
you can download the 8-page report, which is also very graphic-heavy and
easy to digest.
I
put less stock in the numbers related to how/where foundations are
giving (e.g. to education, health... or to economically disadvantaged,
women and girls...), mainly because the sample size was relatively small
- 1,000 larger foundations. However, I do think that the scope of the
foundation world, the total amount of foundation assets, the rates of
growth, and other statistics are interesting, revealing, and even
surprising.
In
my own work with foundations, I haven't necessarily seen that
foundations are giving more, or are giving more easily. Securing
foundation gifts still requires a skillful approach to cultivation and
solicitation, ideally a partnership between foundation and grantee.
While foundations may be giving more, my sense is that they are giving
in a more focused, specific way, and there are more organizations out
there doing the asking, which makes for a highly competitive field.
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