FOUNDATION CENTER REPORTS 2010 GIVING MAY DECREASE FURTHER THAN ANTICIPATED
A new research advisory from the Foundation Center suggests that foundation giving will decline by more than 10 percent in 2009, a bit closer to the high end of the range estimated by the center earlier this year, and that it will fall further in 2010.
Based on a September follow-up survey of large U.S. foundations, the advisory, Foundations’ Year-End Outlook for Giving and the Sector (5 pages, PDF), found that about 70 percent of the nearly 600 respondents said they expect to distribute what they had budgeted for grants earlier this year, while 20 percent said they would give less than the budgeted amount and only 11 percent said they expected to give more. In addition, more than two-thirds of respondents said they had reduced their operating expenses since the beginning of the financial crisis, with just over half reporting that they had frozen or cut salaries and 20 percent saying they had eliminated open staff positions, laid off staff, and/or offered staff buyouts and early retirement packages.