Culture Chronicle

Foundation giving plunged in 2009
Crain's New York Business - April 16, 2010
By Miriam Kreinin Souccar

The Foundation Center says the 8.4% decline in 2009 is the largest ever tracked by the organization.

The economic crisis caused foundations to cut their 2009 giving by an estimated 8.4% last year, the largest decline ever tracked by the Foundation Center.

Grants made by the nation's 75,000 foundations fell to $42.9 billion from $46.8 billion in 2008. The drop is a huge contrast to giving in 2008, when grants actually rose by about 2.8% over 2007 levels. Nearly 10,000 of the foundations are based in New York.

Independent and family foundations reduced their giving by 8.9% to $30.8 billion; corporate foundation giving decreased by 3.3% to $4.4 billion; and community foundation giving declined by 9.6% to $4.1 billion.

"The economic crisis has not ended for this country's nonprofits, and it will be some time before foundations are in a position to help them return to growth," said Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center in New York. "But funders have made exceptional efforts to lessen the pain faced by the nonprofit community." For the full article, click here