Buffalo Foundations Increasingly Count Expenses as Giving

Foundations in the Buffalo, N.Y., area are increasingly counting expenses as charity, in some cases relying on administrative costs to meet the federal requirement to give at least 5 percent of net assets, The Buffalo News reports.

The newspaper reviewed spending reports from 2003 to 2007 for 220 local grant makers and found that they increased the level of administrative expenses they counted as charity by 58 percent over that period. About 7 percent of the groups relied on such costs to meet the 5-percent threshold, and one-third failed to reach that standard even after counting expenses.