Charitable Foundations See Endowments Drop

The results of the Commonfund study, released Thursday, show the 290 private and community foundations surveyed gave away an average of 5.8 percent of their assets in 2008, compared with 5.5 percent in 2007.

Nearly half the foundations reported increasing their dollar spending by an average of 20.4 percent in 2008, while 31 percent said they decreased spending by nearly a third.