Small Foundations’ Assets Down, but Gifts Keep Up With Grants

While their assets have yet to return to pre-recession levels, smaller U.S. foundations have stayed relatively healthy when it comes to fundraising, says Reuters.

Collecting data from 519 foundations with less than $50-million in assets, management firm Foundation Source found that from the end of 2007 through the end of last year, donations to the groups amounted to 104 percent of grant allocations.

“We’ve seen for many years how our clients replenish their assets, but had not realized how well their contributions held up through the economic downturn,” said Andrew Bangser, chief financial officer at Foundation Source, which released its findings Tuesday.

The survey showed that total assets for the groups are almost 9 percent lower than they were before the recession. Grant making by most of the foundations was more than twice the Internal Revenue Service minimum of 5 percent.