Philanthropy Massachusetts Releases Giving Massachusetts 2020 Report for Foundation Giving
First report on institutional philanthropy in MA in over 15 years
On June 17, 2020, Philanthropy Massachusetts released its Giving Massachusetts 2020 the first report on institutional philanthropy in Massachusetts in over 15 years. 
Giving Massachusetts 2020 provides a baseline for foundation giving; looking at data and trends in giving BY Massachusetts, TO Massachusetts, and within each county. The focus of this report is foundation giving from 2017, the most recent year for which there is a near complete dataset.
“We hope Giving Massachusetts 2020 will provide a baseline understanding of giving BY Massachusetts, TO Massachusetts, and even within each county, and that we can return to this type of report periodically to share an update of patterns over time”, explained Jeff Poulos, CEO of Philanthropy Massachusetts. “We recognize that 2020 is already dramatically different than 2017 as giving has surely shifted due to Covid-19. We anticipate juxtaposing data in this report to that of future years to understand changes in giving over time and in response to the worldwide pandemic.”
Key Findings of Giving Massachusetts 2020 report:
- In 2017, there were 3,481 Massachusetts-based independent, corporate, community, and operating foundations
- Massachusetts foundation assets reached $29.4 billion and giving surpassed $2.0 billion in 2017.
- Individual giving by Massachusetts residents in 2017 totaled $6.8 billion
- Giving by private, independent or family foundations makes up 81% of grant dollars distributed; 10% of funding was distributed by corporate foundations, 8% by community foundations, and 1% by operating foundations.
- Massachusetts is home to 16 community foundations that collectively held $1.9 billion in assets and gave $189 million in 2017.
- Massachusetts corporate foundations account for 10% of grant dollars, and report total giving of $213 million in 2017.
- Massachusetts received a total of $4.5 billion in grant dollars in 2017, one-third of which was provided by MA-based grantmakers.
- Health, education, and human services were top funding priorities of grantmakers giving to Massachusetts in 2017.
At its virtual launch on June 17th, Giving Massachusetts 2020 was presented to over 185 foundation leaders, highlighting the report’s key findings and providing a panel discussion with colleagues from the philanthropic sector around the Commonwealth who spoke to specific report trends including:
- Overall impressions of Giving in MA - and the story/stories the report reveals
- Issue area highlights and gaps in funding
- Observations about regional similarities and differences throughout Massachusetts
Philanthropy Massachusetts published Giving Massachusetts 2020 to provide a foundation to build upon and a baseline comparison for future reports on foundation giving.
SO this is just the beginning of our data journey. We encourage and respectfully request grantmakers to continue to e-report their grantmaking data to Candid, to enable us to publish giving reports for use in our sector in the future. For instructions and guidelines for grantmaking data submissions please click here.
Instructions for some browsers:
To View Report: Click here
To Download Report: Click here and select from File, Export as PDF