Charitable Disbursements up 40% in the Past Five Years
As the chart below shows, private foundations have increased their annual philanthropic support (green line) by nearly 40%, from $54 billion (FY2013) to $73 billion (Most Recent), an increase of $19 billion per year.
Also growing at a rapid pace have been incoming contributions (blue line) with new contributions reaching nearly $60 billion in the most recently reported year.
For most of the past 5 years, the difference between outflows and inflows has typically been in the $12-$18 billion range.
Private foundations are an increasingly important source of funding for charities overall, as foundation-giving now accounts for nearly 18% of total philanthropic support, up from 15% in 2003 (Giving USA Report).
Although foundations are required to pay out 5% of their assets each year in grants and operating expenses, many contribute more. In fact, aggregate disbursements have been about 8% of beginning total assets.
Who Has Been Giving To Foundations?
A lot of the new money flowing into foundations has come from technology entrepreneurs (i.e., 8 in the list below are from the Bay Area, plus Gates and Dell). These are in addition to other, familiar names in philanthropy (Walton, Bloomberg and Buffett to name a few)..
Biggest Inflows in the Past Thre Years
Asset Growth
The combination of incoming contributions and investment performance pushed foundation assets to the $1 trillion mark in 2017.
If you’d like a state-by-state look, visit the State List or FoundationIQ.