Foundation Center

A group of the largest U.S. foundations have formally committed to release their grant information in a consistent, open and frequent manner, in an effort to more effectively address the issues facing our communities and our world. To date, 15 foundations have partnered with the Foundation Center and agreed to open up their grantmaking data in this initiative known as the "Reporting Commitment."

Nearly every major indicator of economic, social and physical well-being shows that black men and boys in the U.S. do not have access to the structural supports and opportunities needed to thrive. It is within this context that the Foundation Center and the Open Society Foundations jointly release a new report of groundbreaking research entitled Where Do We Go From Here? Philanthropic Support for Black Men and Boys.

The Foundation Center has released the new 2012 editions of its essential fact sheets on corporate and community foundations. These brief reports provide critical statistics on the resources and giving priorities of these distinct types of U.S. grantmakers. Key findings from the reports include corporate foundation giving grew fastest across foundation types, increasing 6 percent in 2011, and community foundation giving remained basically unchanged in 2011.

Check out recent posts from 101fundraising and The Foundation Center.

The Foundation Center's Glasspockets website now includes a resource designed to bring greater transparency to the Giving Pledge, an effort spearheaded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates that encourages the wealthiest Americans to commit the majority of their assets to philanthropic causes. "Eye on the Giving Pledge" combines the Foundation Center's authoritative data on philanthropy with public information to offer an in-depth picture of Giving Pledge participants (81 currently), their charitable activities, and the potential impact of this collective effort.

Check out recent posts from The Foundation Center, and from the Fired-Up Fundraising and Outrageous Hope blogs.

The Foundation Center has acquired IssueLab, an online publishing forum containing an extensive and diverse body of research produced by the third sector. This step follows several years of close collaboration between the two organizations and formally unites their individual efforts to collect and openly share knowledge generated by foundations and nonprofit organizations.

Giving by U.S. foundations totaled an estimated $46.9 billion in 2011, surpassing the $46.8 billion pre-recession peak recorded in 2008. Yet, after accounting for inflation, contributions by the nation's more than 76,600 foundations were down slightly from 2010. According to Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates (2012 Edition), released by the Foundation Center, if the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were excluded from the totals, 2011 giving would actually have gone down by roughly 3 percent after inflation.

Check out recent posts from the Small Act and Market Watch blogs.

The number of charities and foundations registered with the Internal Revenue Service fell by 16 percent in 2011, mostly because more than 272,000 organizations lost their tax-exempt status after failing to follow the law by filing informational tax forms.

New figures released by the tax agency show that the number of groups classified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code totaled nearly 1.1 million in 2011, down from nearly 1.3 million in 2010.