While preparing to review “Saving Money,” a children’s primer, I noticed that the book’s frontispiece indicated it was purchased by the Donald E. Garrant Foundation. Curious, I Googled the name to find that it is a corporate philanthropy dedicated to financial literacy. They don’t have a website, but the tax returns of 501(c)(3) organizations are public, and it was easy to find it through the National Center for Charitable Statistics.
The Donald E. Garrant Foundation of Wakefield, MA
In 2007, the Donald E. Garrant Foundation funded:
- $3,608 to the Galvin Middle School for a school program on financial literacy
- $1,000 to the Foundation for the Advancement of Malden Education to purchase supplies
- $622 to the Wakefield High School to purchase Intuit software
- $766 to the Action for Boston Community Development to purchase financial literacy materials
- $5,860 to the Wilmington High School to purchase supplies for library books
None of the six officers of corporation received any compensation for their work. The foundation’s only other expense was $1,250 in accounting fees. Their total disbursements were $13,141 which is 6% of the funds’ total assets of $218,065.
Before 2004, the only requirement for a charitable organization to keep their tax-preferred status was to disburse 80% of contributions received in the year. After 2004, it also has to spend down at least 3.5% of the assets each year.
I never found out who Donald E. Garrant is/was or why he had such an interest in financial literacy, but it was great to find such an honorable organization, right here in my backyard.
How to find other charitable organizations
The National Center for Charitable Statistics also makes it simple to find all the private foundations in my county. Below is a chart of the organizations sorted by net assets. The vertical scale is logarithmic.
There are over 800 private foundations, in just my county and the mean net assets is over $500,000. This doesn’t include the public non-profits of which there are more than 2,000, led by MIT and Harvard. (Yes, private universities do not pay taxes.) I confess I spent an hour or more in financial voyeurism poking about the site. For me it was a window into the world of wealth, where their greatest worry is how to spend it wisely.
If you won the lottery and could start your own foundation, what would you fund?
Full disclosure: No interest in any of the organizations mentioned.
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