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The primary source of philanthropic donations remains individuals, estimated at 84 percent of all gifts. Foundations account for 10 percent and corporations account for 6 percent, according to Giving USA.

Foundations gave an estimated $23 billion to nonprofit organizations in 1999, according to the Foundation Center.

Combined foundation assets exceeded $385 billion in 1999.

Grant making by the nation's foundations grew by an estimated 17 percent in 1999, building upon the record 22 percent increase in 1998.

Under federal law, foundations must give away 5 percent of their market value assets or interest income each year, whichever amount is greater, over a three-year period. Thus stock market growth leads to increased grantmaking.

In 1999, the total number of all types of foundations grew 6 percent to almost 47,000, according to the Foundation Center.

Foundation grantmaking has more than doubled since 1990, according to the Foundation Center. As an example, the Lilly Endowments' portfolio grew by $12 billion during just four years, requiring the foundation to contribute an average of $8 million in donations every single week.

The 4,000 largest foundations control 90 percent of the total assets and make 80 percent of the grant awards.

Small foundations predemoninate; 75% of foundations have less than $1 million in assets or give less than $100,000 annually.

Family foundations, which are usually managed or influenced by the original donor or descendents, comprise two-thirds of all foundations in the United States. Although most family foundations have less than $5 million in assets, their combined impact exceeds $86 billion in assets with $5 billion in annual grants.

While there are nearly 2.5 million corporations, only about one-third of them make contributions to nonprofit organizations. Although the Internal Revenue Service allows corporations to contribute up to ten percent of their pre-tax income in tax-deductible donations, most companies only donate approximately one percent of their pre-tax dollars. 94 percent of the corporations that made gifts to nonprofit organizations gave $1,000 or less, according to the 1988 book ABC’s of Grantsmanship.

The $10-billion rise in charitable giving from 1997 to 1998 reflects the growing income of Americans who itemized their tax returns rather than any percentage increase in individual generosity, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Among Americans with the highest incomes – those earning $200,000 or more – the average charitable deduction was 3.5 percent of their earnings.

Foundation assets in the Western United States grew by nearly 28 percent in 1999. More than one-fourth of the $17.8-billion increase in assets was attributable to the single largest gift ever given to a foundation: Bill Gates's $4.8-billion donation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

“Organizations should not receive more than 30 percent of their funding from any one source. An organization could lose 30 percent of its funding and probably survive, though it would be difficult, but the loss of more than 30 percent of funding would put any organization in dire straights. This rule means that while you could have more than 30 percent of income coming from membership (and many groups do), you cannot have one member providing 30 percent of all an organization's money. The IRS recognizes this principle with their "one-third rule." This rule of thumb that says if more than one-third of an organization's total income comes from one person, foundation or corporation, that organization does not meet the test of a public charity [that is, a 501(c)(3) organization] and if this condition persists for five years or more, an organization risks losing its public charity status.” – Kim Klein, Fundraising for Social Change, 1996

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