Charity: Foundations Give More, Firms Less

A survey of 74 leading Southern California foundations and corporations shows they gave more than $253 million to nonprofit charities in 1986--almost $27 million more than the year before. But while the foundations increased their donations by almost 46%, the businesses, many hit by economic problems, gave 9% less.

Although the study, just released by the Southern California Assn. for Philanthropy, examines donations given more than a year ago, it is thought to be the first of its kind locally, and provides a glimpse of who gets what percentage of local philanthropy.

“Considering the many economic factors during that year--mergers, acquisitions, oil prices, deregulation of the financial community--the corporate figures could have been worse,” said Lon Burns, association president. Conversely, the strong showing of the foundations reflects the strength of their investment portfolios, he added. “They don’t have to worry about how many cars they sold.”

The private foundations in 1986 gave $121 million, compared to $111 million for the corporations. Donations from a variety of other sources totaled $24 million.

The study was the second conducted by the association to assess the charitable giving of its members, which includes 104 private sector funders. While the figures are valuable, they do not yet reflect any long-range trends for the charity business. Also, several of the major local foundations--including the Norton Simon Foundation, Norris Foundation and Leavey Foundation--did not participate.

However, as more of the yearly surveys are done, the figures, which have been unavailable elsewhere, will become more valuable for local grant makers, Burns said.

The survey polled 96 organizations, most of which are in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. The total giving for those 96 was $282 million. However, the survey compared the gift patterns of only 74 organizations that responded to surveys in both 1985 and 1986. No detailed assessments could be made on these first comparison figures, Burns said, but they nevertheless showed some interesting trends.

For example, figures showed that the foundations and corporations tended to give in the geographical areas where they are headquartered. About 63% of those polled donated to only Southern California charities, 15% to other agencies throughout the state and 21% to groups outside of California.

Likewise, charities devoted to the arts, education and humanities, were big beneficiaries, while organizations devoted to social services, health and hospitals, lost ground.

Out of the 74-member sample, gifts to education, which nationally is not a top draw, totaled $108 million, up $20 million. Donations to the arts and humanities, were nearly $43 million, an increase of almost $8 million. On the other hand, donations to social service agencies were $43 million, or down by $7.2 million, and gifts to nonprofit organizations in the health and hospital field was $26 million, or down $6 million.

Burns said that while the shifts in those groups were sizable, the surveyors did not analyze why such patterns were emerging.

“For example, nationwide, education money has traditionally gone to higher education, but in our study, locally pre-collegiates received a significant amount of money,” he said. “While I’m not making any assumptions, It may be that the gifts just followed the heightened public concern in the welfare of students in kindergarten through 12th grade.”