Foundation Center

In recent years, the number of U.S. charitable foundations awarding grants for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects around the world has more than tripled. A new research brief by the Foundation Center, Foundation Funding for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, finds that between 2003 and 2010 this growth in the number of active funders was accompanied by a nearly five-fold increase in the number of organizations receiving these grants, to the tune of $144 million in 2009-2010.

Grantmakers that have strategies in place for listening to and learning with grantees are more likely to provide the types of support that grantmakers and grantees agree are essential to boosting nonprofit success, according to a new field study of grantmaker practice commissioned by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter?: A National Study of Philanthropic Practice, conducted by TCC Group, is a comprehensive study of the attitudes and practices of staffed grantmaking foundations in the U.S.

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

Over the past decade, U.S. foundation support for programs benefiting Hispanics and Latinos has held steady at approximately 1 percent of overall foundation funding, even as the Hispanic population in the country has grown significantly, a new report from the Foundation Center finds.

According to Foundation Funding for Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and for Latin America, total grant funding targeting Latinos in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009 averaged about $206 million a year, while funding for Latin America averaged roughly $350 million annually.

Several recent surveys indicate that charities and nonprofits can expect giving to be more bountiful at the end of 2011, particularly compared to the last two years. Moreover, donors seem to be taking into account current economic challenges and government cutbacks when deciding where to give: A recent poll by the Charity Navigator, for instance, found human-service groups, such as food banks and homeless shelters, top the list of where respondents plan to give.

The nonprofit sector is big, getting bigger, and dominated by big organizations and the health and education fields, and it has been whipsawed by big swings in charitable giving over the past decade, a new report says.

The U.S. was home to more than 1.4 million nonprofits in 2010, up 19 percent from 1999, a total that included more than 1 million public charities, says the Nonprofit Sector in Brief, a highlight of trends from The Nonprofit Almanac 2011, which was prepared by the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute.

Earlier this year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invested $10 million to acquire a stake in Liquidia Technologies, a biotechnology company working on new ways to deliver vaccines.

A growing number of foundations are using such investments, known as P.R.I.’s, to connect with profit-making ventures that advance their missions. But as they become more popular, some officials in the nonprofit field worry that this and other newer mechanisms are blurring the lines between profit-making businesses and charitable work.

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

As the fourth quarter of 2011 begins, fewer than half of surveyed nonprofits reported fundraising increases during the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.

According to a report released by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC), of 813 responding nonprofits surveyed in July:

• 44 percent reported increases in charitable contributions received through June, compared with the same period in 2010;
• 25 percent reported giving remained level; and
• 30 percent reported charitable contributions have declined so far this year.
• 1 percent did not know.