Community Foundations Increase Giving - US Study
8 May 2006 at 1:05 pm
Community Foundation giving reached record levels in 2005 and are likely to increase in 2006 against a trend of other foundations remaining steady, according to a new US study.
Giving by the US’s 68,000 grantmaking foundations grew to $US33.6 billion in 2005 spurred on by the growth in community foundations , according to Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates: Current Outlook, a new report from the New York City-based Foundation Centre.
And the findings from the Foundation Centre’s annual Foundation Giving Forecast Survey support the expectation that foundation giving will increase only minimally in 2006 with the exception of community foundations.
The survey compared Independent, Corporate and Community Foundations.
Sara Engelhardt, President of the Foundation Centre says while and the outlook for 2006 is uncertain at best, some funders—notably community foundations—may show bigger increases, but overall giving is likely to hold steady.
She says that in the case of community foundations, continued strong growth in their pool of donors and in exceptionally large gifts from their donor-advised funds will help them to maintain faster rates of growth in giving.
Community foundations were notably more likely to expect to increase their giving levels in 2006 than were corporate and independent foundations. In general, the study found that community foundations experienced far less of a dip in their assets in the early 2000s and have benefited from far larger asset gains (mainly from new gifts) in subsequent years.
Community foundations represented only 1 percent of all grantmaking foundations in the US but roughly 9 percent of the giving. In 2005, their giving rose an estimated 10.9 percent to a record $3.2 billion.
The study says adjusted for inflation, community foundation giving rose 7.2 percent in the last year, reaching a record level.
The number of community foundations in Australia is small with state-based organisations, following the Melbourne Community Foundation model, now operating in Sydney and Western Australia.
If you would like an electronic version of the study in PDF format just send us an email with the words Foundation Centre Study in the subject line to probono@probonoaustralia.com.au.
