Pathways to Alignment of Assets with Mission: Three Foundations’ Journeys

At the end of 2024, U.S. private foundations held a record $1.64 trillion in assets. According to federal law, annually they must spend five percent of that amount, or $82 billion, on grants or other qualifying expenses. In 2024, actual grants reportedly were $105 billion.

So, where does the remaining $1.5 trillion-plus go? As that caustic Heron Foundation question from two decades ago makes clear, mission-aligned investing is not a new idea. Nonetheless, most foundations today still invest for maximum returns, often without regard to mission.

As Geraldine Watson, executive vice president of finance, operations, and the Pocantico Center at Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), indicated, “For many years, most foundations really didn’t know exactly where their 95 percent [of non-grant assets] was.…Their investment people did, but they didn’t know how it correlated with how they were spending their grant dollars.”

Watson is part of a growing group of foundation leaders who wish to end that disconnect. But how can foundations shift billions of dollars toward mission alignment? 

Read more in Nonprofit Quarterly.