New York, NY — April 24, 2008. Giving by corporate foundations increased 6.6 percent in 2007 to an estimated $4.4 billion, according to Key Facts on Corporate Foundations, a new summary report released by the Foundation Center.

“Corporate foundations have long represented an important source of support for the nonprofit sector, and that remained true in 2007,” said Steven Lawrence, senior director of research at the Foundation Center. “While the survey findings suggest that giving by corporate foundations may increase in 2008, the current economic downturn makes the future less predictable.”

Key Facts on Corporate Foundations highlights the Foundation Center’s latest research on the size, scope, and giving interests of the nation’s nearly 2,600 corporate foundations.

Other key findings from the report include:

• Adjusted for inflation, corporate foundation giving has nearly doubled since 1990.
• Education was the top priority of corporate foundations across regions, making up about one-quarter of grant dollars.
• By industry, the banking and finance sector accounted for the largest share of corporate foundation giving, at 23.3 percent.
• The Northeast and Midwest accounted for the largest shares of corporate foundation giving, coming in at 34 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

At the same time, corporate foundation giving continued to grow at a slower rate than giving by other foundations. In 2007, corporate foundations accounted for 10 percent of overall foundation giving, down from 17 percent in 1990.

Findings in Key Facts on Corporate Foundations come from the Foundation Center’s tracking of fiscal and programmatic information on 80,000+ foundations, corporations, and public charities; annual surveys of leading grantmakers; and analyses of the giving patterns of more than 1,200 of the nation’s largest foundations. The report can be downloaded at no charge from the Gain Knowledge area of the Foundation Center’s web site.

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