Total transactions represent the number of gifts and grants processed annually (including supporting organizations). The average transaction size represents the total dollar value of gifts plus the total dollar value of grants divided by the total number of transactions.

The distribution rate is calculated by dividing the foundation’s total grants by total assets (including supporting organizations) at the end of the foundation’s fiscal year. The percentage of total assets in donor-advised funds (Percent Total Assets DAF) is the total amount of IRS-classified donor-advised funds divided by total foundation assets.

The following is a list of Annual Survey participants sorted by asset size, supplemented by publicly available information where available.

Larger community foundations tend to maintain relatively complex operating models, requiring a higher number of specialized staff who will be less likely to manage donor funds. (n=223)

It's typical to see a lower expense-to-asset ratio at larger community foundations where an economy of scale is achieved, though operating model differences at individual community foundations will have an impact on this metric. In combination with asset growth stagnation, a trend toward embarking on foundation-driven leadership efforts is resulting in higher expense-to-asset ratios across the field. Medians for three out of six asset size cohorts are higher than they were in FY17. (n=240)

Field Median: 1.2%

Across the field, no significant differences in the breakdown between staff and non-staff expenses are observed. It's typical for two-thirds of operating expenses to go toward staff capacity.

Averages were used to total 100%. (n=240)

It will come at no surprise that administrative fees on funds act as the main driver of community foundation operating revenues. No asset size cohort, on average, acquires less than two-thirds of all operating revenue from admin fees. There will, however, be differences in the extent to which community foundations of different sizes depend on other sources of revenue.

DAFs at community foundations tend to be highly active grantmaking vehicles; more than half (53%) of all survey respondents granted more than 10% of their DAF assets out in FY2018. Larger community foundations, which as noted above tend to carry more non-endowed assets, also have the highest distribution rates.

Sample size for DAF distribution rates are slightly smaller (n=236) than for the whole foundation (n=250).

The "flow rate" of DAFs compares a given year's grantmaking total with its gift total, dividing grants by gifts. This metric may help capture the activity of donors who contribute to their DAF and grant from it that same year.¹ As with distribution rate and other measures of DAF activity in this survey, data is collected in the aggregate by sponsoring community foundation.