On Thursday, Washington Grantmakers released two reports: “Beyond Dollars: Investing in BIG Change – How Washington Area Grantmakers Are Creating Lasting Impact”, a series of recent case studies of Washington area “Big Change” grantmaking and “Grantmaking in 2009 & 2010,” a survey of local foundations and corporations offering insight into how the recession has affected area grantmakers. How have grants to nonprofits been affected in 2009 and what will 2010 look like? The key findings of the grantmaking report provide a peek into the future of philanthropy in the DC nonprofit community.
The online survey of Washington Grantmakers’ members – independent foundations, community foundations, family foundations, operating foundations, charitable trusts, corporate foundations, and corporate giving programs – found that grantmakers have been forced by the recession to rein in their giving in 2009. A slim majority (51 percent) said their grant budgets are down this year, compared with a third (33 percent) who said their grant budgets were up. What’s more, the grantmakers foresee a 2010 budget that anticipates further retrenchment. In all, 82 percent anticipate that in 2010 they will award either fewer or about the same number of grants (38 percent said fewer grants, 44 percent said about the same number). Just 6 percent expect to give more grants in the coming year.
“Local grantmakers are responding with resolve to the recession,” said Tamara Lucas Copeland, President of Washington Grantmakers. “They’ve made painful cuts to their own staffs and internal operations, and some have had to discontinue support for longtime grantees doing valuable work, so that they could focus their dollars on the most vital programs. But they recognize, too, that they need to fund initiatives aimed at attacking problems at their core, instead of just the symptoms.”
Washington Grantmakers asserts that grantmakers’ responses suggest the beginnings of a broader shift toward “big change” philanthropy. Just over a third of respondents indicated that they intended to adopt new approaches to their grantmaking in the coming year. Each of the case studies in the “Beyond Dollars” report focuses on the many ways that grantmakers are going beyond immediate delivery of services to address larger societal problems. For example:
The Summit Fund challenged the community to meet an ambitious goal of dramatically reducing teen pregnancy, going beyond incremental change. The resulting campaign seized on a timely opportunity presented by a national push on the issue, and resulted in a 57-percent reduction in teen pregnancy rates in the area between 1997 and 2005.
The Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers is a network of funders in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia, partnering with nonprofits and governments, that is committed to improving the region by touching lives and changing communities through effective and efficient grantmaking. Both reports are available on their website: http://www.washingtongrantmakers.org.