The Minnesota Council on Foundations' latest charitable giving report says that "giving by individuals, foundations and corporate giving programs totaled $5.2 billion" during the year ending May 2011.
They call that a "a modest 2.6 percent increase" over the previous year.
Some highlights from the period:
- Individual giving grew 3.4 percent to $3.8 billion and accounted for most of the overall increase. The majority of the state’s charitable giving — 73 percent in 2010 — comes from individuals.
- Grantmaking accounted for 27 percent — $1.41 billion — an increase of less than 1 percent over 2009. That includes grants made by Greater Twin Cities United Way, which was included in the research for the first time to create a more comprehensive picture of charitable giving in Minnesota. (Without that addition, grantmaking would have declined 4.1 percent.)
The report notes that grantmaking has not fully recovered from the economic downturn, but that foundation assets are beginning to rise. Assets grew 3.8 percent to $16.9 billion in 2010 but are still slightly below the pre-recession 2007 level of $17 billion.
"The increase in foundation assets is good news, but it will take continued economic stability for giving levels to catch up to previous highs," said Bill King, MCF president, in a statement about the report. "Foundations typically base grantmaking on a one- to three-year rolling average of past asset performance, so 2008’s 12-percent drop in foundation asset value continued to negatively impact grantmaking in 2010."
More details from the report are available on the MCF website.