2022 Report on Private Philanthropy

This new report is our most comprehensive inside look at how private foundations are giving and investing. Our subject matter experts spent months tracking and analyzing the activities of a sample of nearly 1,000 private, non-operating foundation clients over the past two calendar years.

Buoyed by strong markets, philanthropists accelerated their giving in 2021 and gradually expanded their focus beyond the urgent needs that emerged in 2020. At the same time, foundations deployed their capital in fewer individual grants underscoring a desire to achieve more targeted impact.

3 Key Takeaways:

• The stark needs of 2020 propelled philanthropists to address visible and acute need.
• Much of our data suggests a post-pandemic easing that allowed private foundations to return to their core missions and established grantmaking processes in 2021 after answering the call in 2020.
• Foundations exhibit distinct differences around giving and investing based on their size.