Foundation Giving Anticipated to be Up

According to an annual survey of foundations* by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is, by far, the most wealthy foundation with more than $33-billion in assets. The second best endowed is the Ford Foundation at a distant $12 billion plus.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is likely to retain its #1 position for the near future, thanks to a $36.1-billion pledge from investor Warren E. Buffett. So far, Mr. Buffett has given the foundation $1.6-billion.

Besides ranking the wealth of over 100 of the largest foundations, the Chronicle found the following trends:

• Thirty-seven of the foundations surveyed estimated that their giving for 2007 will increase.
• Seventy-seven of the surveyed foundations provide compensation to their board members. Compensation included salaries, expense reimbursements, and fees for duties board members fulfill such as legal or accounting services.
• Some foundations have or will release reports on funding failures. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, for example, even sponsored a competition among its staff to nominate the worst grant they made and what they learned from it.
• Several foundations have diversified their investments so as to avoid market dips that deplete their assets. W.K. Kellogg Foundation, for instance, has reduced its holding in the Kellogg company from 80 to 66 percent of its total assets.

More on Foundation Giving:

• Foundations Find Benefits in Facing Up to Failures (NY Times)
• Top 5 Tips for Successful Foundation Funding
• The Rules of Engagement: How to Make Your Letter of Inquiry a Winner

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