Private Foundations (Remember Those?): Still 100,000+ Strong, With Almost $1.1 Trillion in Assets (as of 2020)

Over the summer the IRS posted the latest spreadsheet summarizing figures from private foundation annual returns (Form 990-PF), providing information for Tax Year 2020. Highlights include:

• There were over 103,000 returns filed by almost 95,000 nonoperative foundations and over 9,000 operating foundations.
• Almost $1.1 trillion in assets.
• Over $172 billion in revenues, including $95 billion from contributions, gifts, and grants.
• Over $117 billion in expenses, including $92 billions contributions, etc. paid.

This includes almost 1,600 private foundations (1.5%) with assets of $100 million or more, which collectively accounted for $748 billion of the assets (69%), $104 billion of the revenue (60%), and $72 billion of the expenses (61%).

These figures, which are not greatly changed from the 2019 tax year amounts, indicate that private foundations remain a significant part of the charitable sector and philanthropic giving even as donor advised funds continue to grow in importance. By comparison, the National Philanthropic Trust reported for 2020 that the approximately 1 million individual DAFs its report covered (housed at 976 charities) had $160 billion in assets, received $48 billion in contributions, and made $35 billion in grants in aggregate.

Lloyd Mayer