Family Foundation Fundraising

Family Foundations

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Of the $306 billion contributed in America in 2007, foundations gave 13% ($39 billion). A subset of foundations are family foundations. The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported on a Foundation Center study of these family foundations which they define as having “measurable donor or donor-family involvement.”

This means that such large foundations as the Gates Foundation, Lilly Endowment, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Annenberg Foundation are included in the following family foundation information.

• Grant making by family foundations totaled $18.5 billion in 2007 (double the level of their giving from 10 years ago)
• $24 billion was contributed to establish or grow family foundations in 2007
• 37,539 family foundations exist with total assets at the end of 2007 of $294 billion
• 11,555 family foundations have been created since 2000
• 10,181 have assets of at least $1 million or paid out grants of $100,000 or more in a single year
• 48% family foundations report giving less than $50,000 in 2007
• Only 1,600 family foundations employ staff members
• Just 617 are considered to be large foundations
• Family foundations established before the 1940s typically have 7 trustees while those established since the 1960s median was 3 trustees

To review the full report, “Key Facts on Family Foundations" (2009 edition) go to the Foundation Center’s website by clicking here.

Please remember that all this information was valid at the end of calendar 2007, things will be much different when the data from year end 2008 comes in. And, while foundations are always an attractive fundraising target (they are meant to give money away after all), many have experienced dramatic reductions in their assets (and some devastated by the Maddoff scam). Any foundations that make multi-year commitments will be dramatically reducing grantmaking in 2009 so they can honor these pledges while still meeting their 5% distribution requirement.

Another reminder as you instantly through out the small end of the family foundation list. Many of these small foundations are what I call “place holders.” They are set up during a donor’s lifetime to get the donor, family, family advisors used to the foundation world. Upon death or a major positive liquidity event, these small foundations can grow rapidly. I had one of my university trustees operate his foundation in this way. We had done research and found a very small corpus and a pattern of small donations with one big gift of $30,000. Yet, we knew he had wealth. He made a $1.25 million gift and was debating on whether to put money in his foundation to cover it or just do it personally. His advisors finally decided he could just write out a check from his personal accounts. The lesson here – really keep track of these small family foundations over time and their founders right now.

Permanent Link: Family Foundation Fundraising

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/02/family-foundation-fundraising.html