Giving by community foundations to international causes more than doubled in the first half of this decade, with much of the growth driven by gifts made through donor-advised funds administered by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, according to a new report.
In the five years that ended in 2014, community grant makers increased their annual outlay for international programs from $103 million to $223 million, the Council on Foundations and the Foundation Center found in an analysis of more than 10,000 grants made by 1,000 foundations.
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which has attracted billions of dollars in gifts from technology entrepreneurs, was responsible for 44 percent of the overseas grants in 2014, when it made international awards totaling $98 million. That spending helped double the share of community-foundation grants given internationally to 6 percent.
Annual global grants from other community foundations increased from $69 million to $125 million, an 80 percent jump, from 2010 to 2014.
About 13 percent of the Silicon Valley organization’s 2014 grant making was directed to other countries. The Seattle Foundation and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation each sent 12 percent of their grant dollars abroad, and the Foundation for the Carolinas rounded out the top four with 10 percent.
In recent years, the Silicon Valley foundation has challenged the notion that community grant makers should focus in their own geographic area. When the organization opened a New York office last year, its leaders said communities can be defined by shared interests as well as by lines on a map.
The increase in international spending by these grant makers reflects this changing view of what constitutes “community,” according to Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center. More than 90 percent of such grants went through donor-advised-fund accounts managed by community foundations, Mr. Smith noted, suggesting that donors’ personal experiences and connections in other countries helped drive the increase in global giving.
While community foundations “are appropriately thought of as place-based organizations with a fundamental focus on the health of the local community, they are equally committed to addressing the diverse needs of local constituents with increasingly global backgrounds,” he said in a statement.
Among other findings of the study:
- About 85 percent of community foundations made at least one international grant in 2014, up from 67 percent in 2002.
- The number of international awards increased from 1,980 to 2,396 in the five years that ended in 2014.
- Nearly 90 percent of international grants given by community foundations go through a U.S.-based grantee.
