D.C.-based funders give locally

February 26, 2009

About a third of the grant dollars awarded by capital-area foundations stay in the Washington, D.C., region, a new study says.

Foundations based in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and northern Virginia awarded 33 percent of their grant dollars to locally-focused organizations in 2006, says the study by the Foundation Center.

Together, the 1,191 funders awarded a total of $186 million to local groups.

Among the largest 26 foundations in the study, human-service groups were the leading funding recipient, garnering a third of all grant dollars, followed by education groups, which received 17 percent.

"With data on how much of their giving stays local, foundations in the Greater Washington area are better positioned to assess the collective impact of their work in the region," Larry McGill, senior vice president for research for the Foundation Center, says in a statement.

The study was supported by the Eugene Meyer Foundation and is the first to analyze local giving within a specific metropolitan area in the U.S., the Foundation Center says.

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