New Operating Cost Benchmark Established for Private Foundations

Business Wire, Sept 18, 2007

Foundation Source is a registered trademark of Foundation Source Philanthropic Services Inc. All rights reserved.

Footnotes:

(1) Operating costs for the 35,728 foundations reporting to the IRS were tabulated from line 24(d) of IRS Form 990-PF. Line 24(d) includes all administrative, advisory, accounting and tax, legal, compensation and other expenses incurred in the course of managing the foundation's charitable activities. Line 24(d) does not include investment-related expenses and excise tax payments.

(2 )According to the Association of Small Foundations 2006-2007 survey of its 3,000 member foundations, 90% manage their foundations in-house and 10% outsource. The study assumes that these percentages can be conservatively extrapolated to all US Foundations.

(3 )Total Foundation Assets includes current market value of the assets in the foundation. It reflects the sum total of all contributions to the foundation, including cash, stock and alternative investments (art, real estate, etc.) net of any charitable distributions and investment-related expenses.

(4)According to the most recent data provided by the IRS (Tax Year 2005), a total of 1042 private foundation or 2.9% had assets over $50 million and 34,686 private foundations or 97.1% had assets under $50 million.