Downturn Causes Drop in Multiyear Foundation Grants
By Holly Hall
Chronicle of Philanthropy
September 5, 2012
Many nonprofits pinned their hopes on foundations to help them get through the worst of the downturn with multiyear grants, but now a new study finds that such contributions fell sharply from 2008 to 2010.
The study, by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, examined more than 900 foundations from 2008 to 2010, comparing their grants to those offered by a similar group of foundations in 2004 to 2006.
The share of grants that were for multiple years dropped by 55 percent in the downturn when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is excluded from the sample. That foundation gives more multiyear grants than any other philanthropy, awarding $2.6-billion in multiyear grants, or 96 percent of all the money distributed. When it is included, the drop in all foundation multiyear grants was 37 percent.
