FoundationMark models indicate that U.S. foundations’ assets rose by about $85 billion, or about 5.8%, in the first quarter of 2024 pushing assets to a record $1.55 trillion.
Foundation asset levels are a function of three variables: incoming contributions, outgoing grants and expenses, and investment performance. The Grantmaker Investment Value (“GIV”) Index was up 6.6% in the first quarter of 2024, correspondingly investment performance accounted for most of the gain with the balance comprised of outflows for grants and expenses somewhat offset by new contributions.
New contributions in the period 2020-2022 were historically strong, but contributions can be volatile, for example in 2022 Bill Gates added $20 billion to his foundation; total contributions for the year were about $80 billion, so his single gift was 25% of the total. Therefore we forecast incoming contribution to be above the ten year average, but lower than the 2020-2022 period.
*The data in the chart above combines historic information drawn from foundations’ reported asset levels and disbursements obtained from their annual tax filings, along with projected values based on the FoundationMark Grantmaker Investment Value (“GIV”) Index which estimates monthly returns for the foundation universe based on reported asset allocations and market returns. Gifts, grants, and operating expenses projections are based on historic disbursement ranges.