There’s news in Foundation-land of late, as the Foundation Center released a new report this month, Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates: Current Outlook, 2007 Edition. 

And the news is generally good.  In short:

• Giving by the nation’s 71,000 grantmaking foundations rose to $40.7 billion in 2006. 
• Independent and family foundations — which account for nearly nine out of ten foundations — raised their giving by 10.3 percent in 2006, representing their first double-digit increase since 2001.
• Corporate foundation giving grew a more modest 6 percent in 2006, following a 16.5 percent jump in 2005.
• Community foundations reported the fastest growth in giving, with funding up 13.2 percent in 2006.
• Foundation assets grew by 10 to 12 percent in 2006.
• Nearly 60 percent of surveyed foundations expect their giving to increase in 2007, and overall funding will likely continue to grow at a double-digit pace.

And an earlier report released by the Foundation Center, Highlights of Giving Trends, 2007 Edition, allows us to see where all those gains are going. 

I will, of course, look with an eye towards giving to women and girls.  Let’s see what we find:

• International affairs and the environment showed the largest gains in funding.
• Education and health benefited from largest shares of grant dollars.
• Human services led by share of number of grants.
• Children and youth accounted for largest share of grant dollars and grants in 2005.
• Funding for the economically disadvantaged declined to $2.6 billion, down from a record $3.1 billion in 2004.
• Among beneficiary groups, single parents, substance abusers, and military & veterans experienced fastest growth in giving in the latest year.

Nothing specifically on women and girls there, but never fear, the data exists.

Here, we see that:

• Women and girls received 8 percent of funding from the 100 largest foundations and 4.3 percent from 1,054 other foundations.  (Funding specific to men and boys received .9 and 1.6 percent respectively).
• The highest group of recipients was children and youth 19.7 percent, followed by the economically disadvantaged at 18.2 percent among the 100 largest foundations. 

More information on individual numbers of grants and dollar amounts for specific populations can be found here.

And there you have it, the current picture of grantmaking, and particularly in terms of women and girls. 

I must say, it doesn’t strike me as particularly proportional, given that:

• The National Poverty Center finds that poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic.  In 2004, 28.4 percent of households headed by single women were poor, while 13.5 percent of households headed by single men and 5.5 percent of married-couple households lived in poverty. 
• The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that nearly 20 percent of women are uninsured and women remain less likely than men to be eligible for and participate in their employer’s health plan and are more vulnerable to losing insurance due to divorce or the death of their spouse than men.
• According to the CDC, women account for more than 25 percent of new HIV infections, with African American women being particularly affected.  
• The WHO reports that mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder are more common in women for a number of reasons.  Most women (and men) are never diagnosed or treated for mental health disorders, which account for significant burdens of mortality and disability.     
• And then, of course, there’s that ever-present wage-gap. 

(For the regional statistics, which show similar trends, please see our Portrait Project.) 

Back in October, Anne asked us, "Where’s the money?" and cited some of the amazing things that could, can and are being done as a result of applying funding with a gender lens.  Things largely occuring because of the generosity of women coming together with their philanthropic dollars on behalf of other women. 

What we call around here the power of giving together.

So, while the giving picture is getting increasingly brighter, there’s definitely room to ensure that more of that light is invested in women and girls–where we’ve seen at The Women’s Foundation and throughout the U.S. and internationally that doing so is an investment in communities, nations and a better world all around.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Blog, Philanthropy, Women. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.