2008 was a bad year for foundations’ endowments. According to a Philanthropy Journal article, U.S. foundations lost an average of 26 percent on their endowment investments last year, a sharp turnaround from 2007, when returns averaged almost 10 percent.
While that means an evaporation of about $46 billion in wealth for the 290 foundations surveyed, almost half gave away more in 2008 than in 2007 by an average of 20.4 percent, says the report from the Commonfund Institute.
