From the Americans for the Arts e-newsletter,April 2010:
While funders made efforts to lessen the pain in the nonprofit community, the economic crisis caused foundations to cut their 2009 giving by an estimated 8.4 percent last year, the largest decline ever tracked by the Foundation Center.
The actual loss was 17 percent of foundation assets, but funders cut operating expenses and took money from endowments in an attempt to maintain giving levels. Independent and family foundations reduced their giving by 8.9 percent to $30.8 billion; corporate foundation giving decreased by 3.3 percent to $4.4 billion; and community foundation giving declined by 9.6 percent to $4.1 billion.
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