• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
News and Analysis of Foundation Investment Performance
  • About
    • Our Story
    • About Private Foundations
    • About FoundationAdvocate
  • Newsletters
    • Spring 2025
    • Winter 2025
    • Autumn 2024
  • Lists & Links
    • Press
    • Lists
      • Celebrities
      • Finance
    • Links
    • Foundation Fun
  • Are You a Foundation?
  • Contact Us

Who Controls The Money

By

Setting A Course

The title of this article, Who Controls The Money?, is intentionally provocative.  In the foundation world it is an easy answer, the 150,000 trustees that control the $1.2 trillion in assets and $80 billion in annual giving.  A more interesting question might be “How do foundations differ in their approaches to managing their assets?” 

We have categorized foundations by their approach

ApproachCharacteristicsNumberAssets
Institutional
  • Paid contractors
  • Paid Investment Employees
2,000$500 billion
Asset Manager
  • Reported investment expense, not trustee
  
Self Directed
  • No reported investment expense
  
Bank/Trust
  • Bank/Trust Company is listed as Trustee
  

 

Are You A Foundation?

Filed Under: Newsletters, Trustee Resources, Articles, Spring 2021

Primary Sidebar

Topics

Performance

Expenses

Trustee Resources

Foundation Facts

Quarterly Newsletters

Newsletters

  • Spring 2025
  • Winter 2025
  • Autumn 2024
  • Summer 2024

Subscribe to Newsletter

Footer

Are you a trustee?

Interested in a free FoundationMark report on your foundation’s investment performance? click here

Contact Details

E-Mail: info@FoundationAdvocate.com

Visit Our Related Websites

FoundationMark.com and FoundationIQ.com

Copyright © 2025 Foundation Financial Research, LLC