Research on Foundation Expenses

Reader’s interested in Tuesday’s blog entry on foundation operations, will be pleased to learn that final results from the first large-scale, long-term study of foundation expenses and compensation were released yesterday. The report What Drives Foundation Expenses and Compensation? Results of a Three-Year Study examined data from the 10,000 largest grantmaking foundations. Key findings include:

-Foundations differ greatly in their structures, resources, and operating characteristics and these differences significantly affect their expense levels.

-Employment of staff is the single most important factor affecting expense levels, followed by staff size and level of program activities.

-Foundation scale influences cost ratios.

Issued jointly by the Urban Institute, the Foundation Center, and GuideStar, this study expands on the findings from an initial report published in 2006, Foundation Expenses and Compensation: How Operating Characteristics Influence Spending.