Our Region, Our Giving 2007

Publication date:

November, 2007

Our annual giving report generally focuses on change from one year to the next. We analyze the numbers to determine where growth—in terms of giving, assets, and number of foundations—is occurring. This annual data is a helpful report card for our region, and it is always gratifying when we can report that our region’s generosity is still on the rise.

But, now and then, it helps to take a longer view. Some changes will not reveal themselves otherwise. Our 15th anniversary seemed the perfect time to suspend temporarily the year-by-year approach and to look back even further, to see what the local philanthropic landscape looked like in 1992, the year Washington Grantmakers was founded, and compare that to 2005.

Key findings:

Community foundation giving: Between 1992 and 2005, the assets of community foundations in the region grew from $31.5 million to $412.5 million.
Local foundations investing in the area: More local philanthropic dollars are now staying within the region—63 percent of total grants made in 2005 as compared to 46 percent in 1992.
National foundations giving to this region: More philanthropic dollars are coming into the region: $1.5 billion in 2005 compared to $407 million in 1992.