The Foundation Center’s Foundations Today Series consists of three annual research studies that analyze the size, reach, and giving trends of U.S. private and community foundations.
The first of the series, the just-released 2010 edition of Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates: Current Outlook, reports a record decrease of 8.4 percent in foundation giving in 2009. To put this into context, during previous economic downturns in 1983, 2002, and 2003, foundation giving declined by less than 1 percent. Given the unprecedented losses in foundation assets in 2008, however, it is clear that the measured responses of some of the larger foundations lessened the devastating impact of the crisis.
Available in full text online at the Foundation Center’s web site, the report addresses related factors, such as foundation asset losses, establishment of new foundations, and the outlook for giving in 2010 and 2011, and provides a very useful appendix on foundation assets and giving in 2007 and 2008.