Report: Grantmaking Declined in 2003

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A report from the Foundation Center shows a decline in grants awarded by the nation's 65,000 grantmaking foundations last year.

According to the "Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates" report, giving dropped an estimated 2.5 percent last year, to $29.7 billion, down from just over $30 billion in 2002 and 2001. Giving by independent foundations declined 3.3 percent in 2003, to $22.5 billion, from $23.3 billion in 2002.

Corporate foundation giving also saw a 2-percent decline, the first since the Foundation Center began tracking such data in 1987.

The report did show a slight increase in community-foundation funding, up 1.5 percent to $2.57 billion, from $2.53 billion in 2002.

"Foundations are not immune to economic cycles," said Sara Engelhardt, president of the Foundation Center. "Just as the boom years of the late 1990s enabled foundations to increase their giving at an unprecedented rate, so too has the recession and prolonged stock market downturn led to a reduction in foundation giving. In the face of a double-digit loss in assets, it's heartening that foundations as a group were able to hold the line as well as they did."

The report projected an increase in giving in 2004 because of stronger than expected economic growth in 2003 and an upturn in the stock market.

The complete report is available for download as a PDF file by clicking here.