How Foundations Can Address the New Financial Realities
<p>Because of their dependence on endowments, private foundations have been hit particularly hard by the stock market collapse and continuing financial crisis. With steep declines in the value of their investment portfolios, most institutions have been forced to make tough choices in their spending plans, and even to rethink strategies for advancing their missions. </p>
<p>In his new essay, <a href="/Content/Publications/Annual-Report-Essays/2009/Mar/New-Financial-Realities-The-Response-of-Private-Foundations.aspx">New Financial Realities: The Response of Private Foundations</a>, Commonwealth Fund executive vice president and COO John E. Craig, Jr., surveys the impact the ongoing crisis has had on private foundations, offers lessons on endowment management that they might take from it, and discusses implications for foundations' spending and programmatic strategies. Among the options he encourages smaller foundations to consider is "consolidation with another foundation, which would ensure the critical mass of financial and human resources needed to sustain the vitality of programs going forward." </p>