Foundation Giving Rebounded in 2004; Survey Polls Grantmakers on Giving, Accountability Issues.

(From AScribe)

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Giving by the nation's more than 66,000 grantmaking foundations increased to a new high of $32.4 billion in 2004, according to "Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates: 2004 Preview," a new report from the New York-based Foundation Center. This estimated 6.9 percent rise reversed two years of modest reductions. The beginning of a stock market recovery and higher levels of new gifts into existing foundations in 2003 were the primary factors driving up 2004 giving. Newly established foundations also contributed to the growth.

Accompanying the rise in giving was an increase in the number of grants made. Close to one-third of respondents to the Foundation Center's 2005 "Foundation Giving Forecast Survey" reported awarding more grants in 2004 than in the prior year, up from roughly one-fifth of respondents in 2003. However, foundations remained cautious about the number of multi-year grants they made and the proportion of capital grants they awarded, increasing them only slightly.

FOUNDATION GIVING LIKELY TO GROW MORE SLOWLY IN 2005

A year-end stock market rally contributed to an estimated 4 to 6 percent increase in foundation assets. However, this rise represented roughly half the gain recorded in 2003, and the assets of many foundations remain below their peak levels in 2000. As a result, while more than half of survey respondents indicated that their giving would increase in 2005, one-fourth of respondents expected to reduce giving. This compared to the 18 percent of respondents who expected to cut their giving last year. Thus, while the modest rise in assets in 2004 and generally optimistic outlook for the economy this year suggest that foundation giving will continue to increase in 2005, its growth is likely to fall below the nearly 7 percent rate recorded in 2004.

"Foundations regained their footing in 2004," noted Sara Engelhardt, president of the Foundation Center, "but there will be no return to the boom years of the late 1990s soon. We are likely to see positive but unremarkable growth in foundation giving in the immediate future."

MAJORITY OF FOUNDATIONS BELIEVE CALLS FOR GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY ARE JUSTIFIED