Foundation Management

File this under "The more things change, the more they stay the same." The Council on Foundations’ Foundation Management Series: Governance & Administrative Expenses, 2010 Edition is out. The report is intended to help independent and family, community, and public foundations “benchmark their board composition against peers.”

No surprise here: The majority of foundation board members in 2009 were white, male, and over 50.

Some key demographics:

- Respondents indicated that 62 percent of board members are male.
- Approximately 75 percent of board members are over age 50, followed by 18 percent who are age 40 to 49. Family foundations reported the largest share of board members under age 40 (16 percent).
- Eighty-five percent of board members are white, with African-Americans comprising 7 percent, Hispanics 4 percent, and Asian/Pacific Islanders 2 percent.
- Some 16 percent reported having at least one lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender board member.
- Twenty-nine percent reported having a written board diversity policy.

Other interesting information:

- Median administrative expenses as a share of qualifying distributions for 234 responding staffed foundations in 2008 totaled 15.8 percent.

- Less than one-quarter of foundations compensated their board members in 2009. Larger foundations—those holding at least $250 million in assets—were more apt to provide compensation to some or all of their board members. Independent foundations were far more likely to provide compensation (58.7 percent), while only a handful of community foundation respondents reported compensating their board members (1.4 percent).