New Study on Community Foundation Payout Rates
The Council of Michigan Foundation, Johnson Center for Philanthropy (GVSU), and Plante Moran Financial Advisors recently released “An Evaluation of Community Foundation Investment Returns & Payout Rates,” which explores the payout rate of community foundations.
Brittany Kienker, Principal and Owner of Kienker Consulting, served on the project team for this research, as well as being one of the main contacts for the report. If you are trying to reach her to request more information about this research series, please use her CMF email address (bkienker@michiganfoundations.org).
For reference, the full release from CMF is included below:
As a leadership organization that supports our community of philanthropy in putting equity at the center, the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) is committed to providing access to quality data insights as a tool for the sector — grounded in the context of local and regional philanthropy — and committed to creating space for reflective conversation on what the data tells us.
Building on the learnings of previous studies we’ve commissioned over the past 20 years, in 2020 CMF partnered with the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Plante Moran Financial Advisors to deepen and expand past research exploring the 5% payout rate. In December 2020 we released the first installment of our payout study research series – An Evaluation of Private Foundation Model Portfolios, Investment Returns, & Payout Rates – capturing what we believe is the most comprehensive snapshot of private foundation payout data available to date.
This week we launched An Evaluation of Community Foundation Investment Returns & Payout Rates, phase two of our payout rate research series, focusing on payout rates of community foundations statewide and nationally, as well as in comparison to their private foundation peers.
Key findings include:
62% of Michigan community foundations paid out 5% or more in 2018 and 46% paid out more than 6%.
Michigan community foundation payout rates were nearly identical to their private foundation peers in Michigan and the nation (5.6%-5.9%).
Nationally, community foundation payout rates were higher (7.6%) than national private foundations (5.6%), most likely due to the larger presence of DAFs at national community foundations.
The community foundation payout study is now live in CMF’s Knowledge Center. We encourage you to review the full findings of the study. If you have questions specific to the report please connect with CMF Knowledge Insights Expert in Residence Brittany Kienker, Ph.D.
In the next installment of our research series, we will share findings related to the payout rates of donor advised funds. We look forward to sharing that data with you in the coming months.