Grant Making Declines in 2009

In the United States, we have more than 75,000 grant making organizations. Unfortunately, due to economic conditions, the majority of these organizations have reduced giving over the past year. According to the Foundation Center in New York, grant making in 2009 was down by 8.4 percent, the largest decline they have ever recorded.

According to the most recent edition of Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates, grant dollars declined from $46.8 billion to $42.9 billion in 2009. One of the principal factors in the giving decline was the result of a significant amount of funder reducing their giving and foundation cutting back on their spending to hold on to their funds during what has been referred to as the economic crisis. However, the decline was somewhat moderated by increased funding form the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other grant-makers.

Here is the breakdown for 2009 grant making by organization type as reported by The Nonprofit Times: private and family foundations, which represent nine out of ten foundations, cut grant making by 8.9 percent, corporate foundations reduced grant making by 3.3 percent, and community foundation cut back the most, reducing grant making by 9.6 percent.

The annual Foundation Giving Forecast Survey predicts that foundation giving will remain about the same through 2010 and if the economy continues to rebound, predictions for 2011 are fairly optimistic. All of these predictions are based on the responses from over 1.200 large and mid-sized giving organizations. Final giving figures for 2009 will not be available until 2011.

Bradford K. Smith, president of the Foundation Center, gives his opinion, stating, "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. But funders have made exceptional efforts to lessen the pain faced by the nonprofit community."