At the end of the twentieth century, the nation's nonprofit community continued to benefit from an unprecedented boom in foundation giving. Overall, the more than 1,000 larger U.S. private and community foundations included in the 1999 Foundation Center grants sample awarded more than 108,000 grants totaling $11.6 billion to over 44,500 organizations. This represented a 19.2% increase in giving and an 11.3% rise in number of grants over the prior year. Among the very largest grants-those of $5 million or more-their number jumped by 15% to a record 169.

"The growth in giving seen in the 1999 sample did not quite match the record gains reported for 1998," noted Loren Renz, Vice President for Research at The Foundation Center. "Yet in terms of actual grant dollars, foundations showed a slightly bigger increase in the latest year." This increase benefited nearly every field, with "the environment, human services, and health all realizing above-average growth in foundation support."

Foundation Giving Trends: Update on Funding Priorities, 2001 Edition, provides a detailed look at the giving priorities of the nation's leading grantmakers. Part of the Foundation Center's Foundations Today Series of annual research publications, Foundation Giving Trends examines grantmaking by subject focus, recipient type, type of support, and population group served. It explores giving for domestic and international purposes and pinpoints state and regional patterns of giving. The report also includes breakdowns of giving patterns by foundation size and type, and presents special analyses of giving by family and "new health" foundations.

The analysis of 1999 giving is based on a sample of 108,169 grants of $10,000 or more reported by 1,016 foundations, including approximately 800 of the 1,000 largest by total giving. These foundations, while representing only 2.1 percent of the total number of active, grantmaking foundations, awarded approximately half of all foundation grant dollars reported in the latest year.

Foundation Giving Trends Documents Funding Preferences

Among the many findings presented in Foundation Giving Trends:

Funding for Education Grows by Nearly One-Fifth: Support for education climbed 19.2% to $2.8 billion between 1998 and 1999, keeping pace with overall growth in giving. As a result, education held onto its nearly one-quarter share (24.4%) of foundation grant dollars. The fields of libraries and library science, higher education, and educational services-including support for dropout prevention, remedial programs, educational testing, and parent-teacher groups-all reported above-average gains in funding. A record 106 grants of at least $2.5 million supported education in the latest sample, more than four times the number reported in 1990.

Health Giving Increases by Nearly One-Quarter, Surpassing Overall Gains: Foundation giving for health rose by 23.7% over last year, exceeding overall growth in the sample. Based on this gain, health increased its share of giving to 17.1% but remained in second-place behind education. The areas of mental health and treatment and prevention of specific diseases experienced the fast growth in grant dollars in 1999. However, general and rehabilitative health continued to account for nearly three-fifths of all health funding.

Arts and Culture Benefits from Year's Largest Grant: Support for arts, culture, and the humanities grew by 8% in 1999, following a dramatic 42.1% increase in the prior year. Nonetheless, overall funding for the arts among sampled foundations grew to $1.6 billion, and the field benefited from the year's largest grant: the New York-based Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts' $62.4 million award to the Andy Warhol Museum in the form of artwork. Among specific fields, historic preservation recorded the fastest growth in both grant dollars and number of grants in the latest year, while museums and the performing arts continued to account for the largest shares of arts funding (34% and 31%, respectively).

Environment Experiences Strongest Growth in Funding Among Major Fields: Giving for the environment and animals and wildlife jumped by more than one-third (35.6%) in 1999. Actual grant dollars increased from $539.8 million to $731.7 million. As a result, the environment reached a record 6.3% share of overall giving. Twenty-five grants of at least $2.5 million supported the environment and animals in the latest year, up from 16 in 1998. Within the field, the largest share of support targeted natural resource conservation and protection.

Program Support Takes Biggest Share of Funding; General and Research Support Experience Above-Average Growth: Foundations in the sample continued to provide over two-fifths (42.6%) of their support for specific programs and projects in 1999, although this share was down from the prior year. Overall, program support rose by 10.3% in the latest period. In contrast, grant dollars earmarked for general or unrestricted support rose by one-fifth (20.5%) between 1998 and 1999, and its share of funding increased slightly to 13.9 percent. Support for research also climbed by one-fifth (20.8%), and its 11.4% share of grant dollars represented the highest share reported since 1991. Finally, capital support-including grants for building and renovation as well as endowments-retained a consistent roughly one-quarter (24.3%) share of giving.

Children and Youth Benefit from Largest Share of Funding; Disabled and Economically Disadvantaged Realize Strongest Growth in Support: Foundations provided a consistent one-third of grant dollars to named beneficiary groups in the 1999 sample. Children and youth continued to account for the largest share of support, although this share dipped slightly from 16.1% of grant dollars in 1998 to 15.5% in the latest year. Still, the share of number of grants benefiting this group rose to a record one-in-five (20.1%). Grants benefiting the disabled and the economically disadvantaged realized the fastest growth, with support for the disabled rising to 3.3% of giving and support for the economically disadvantaged-including the poor, homeless, and migrant workers-reaching a record 12.0%. Finally, funding directed to benefit racial or ethnic minorities slipped from 9.9% to 7.9% of grant dollars in the latest year, although Hispanics/Latinos realized an increase in their share of support.

New Report Includes Many Special Features and Enhancements

Breakdowns of Giving Patterns by Region-For the first time, Foundation Giving Trends includes breakdowns of giving patterns by subject area for the four principal U.S. regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. These data show unique giving preferences, such as the larger shares of support provided by Western foundations for Health, the Environment, and Science and Technology compared to Arts and Culture, International Affairs, and the Social Sciences for funders in the Northeast.

Share of Sampled Foundations Funding in Major Subject Areas-In addition to exploring differences in funding preferences based on grant dollars and number of grants, the new report examines the share of foundations making grants in each of the major subject areas. Among the many findings, roughly nine out of ten foundations in the sample made grants for Education, Human Services, Arts and Culture, and Health.

The Role of Small Grants in Foundation Support-The 2001 edition focuses on the impact of small grants-those of $10,000 to $50,000-on each of the principal subject areas and finds that, across subject areas, at least half of grants are for $50,000 or less. Moreover, it shows that by share of grant dollars, smaller awards favor the fields of Human Services and Education, while larger awards target Education and Health.

Differences in Foundation Giving Priorities vs. Other Private Donors-The report includes a comparison of foundation giving patterns by recipient type with all sources of private contributions-individuals, bequests, corporations, and foundations. Overall, it finds that foundations direct the largest share of their support to educational organizations (35.2%), while all private giving overwhelmingly favors religious institutions (43.0%).

Foundation Support for U.S. Community Foundations-Foundation Giving Trends presents the first-ever examination of private foundation support for U.S. community foundations. This analysis shows that independent, corporate, and community foundations in the 1999 sample awarded $292 million to these institutions, with just over three-fifths (61.1%) of giving providing undesignated support. (Typically, these grants served to build community foundations' endowments and also to fund their start-up and general operating expenses.) The balance (38.9%) supported their work in areas led by Public/Society Benefit, Human Services, and Education.

About the Foundations Today Series

The successor to the Foundation Center's popular Foundation Giving report, the Foundations Today Series provides the latest information on foundation growth and trends in foundation giving. The five reports in this annual series—Foundation Giving Trends, Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates, Foundation Yearbook, Foundation Staffing, and Foundation Reporting—present detailed analyses of foundation grantmaking trends based on a sample of larger U.S. foundations, examine growth in the resources of active U.S. foundations, identify differences among grantmakers by foundation type, document foundation staffing patterns, and explore foundation reporting practices.

"Highlights" of Foundation Giving Trends can be accessed free of charge from the Foundation Center's Web site, http://www.foundationcenter.org. In addition, the FC Stats section of the Web site provides access to hundreds of free statistical tables on U.S. private and community foundations and their funding patterns by subject area, type of support, population group, and geographic focus.

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