In 2010, Houston Endowment’s allocation for grants was $101 million. Each year’s grant allocation is based on five percent of a three-year average of the endowment’s market value. The goals of this spending policy are to provide a relatively stable pattern of spending on grants, despite fluctuations in security markets, and to preserve the inflation-adjusted value of the endowment in perpetuity.

Grant allocations for any given year will differ from the total grants approved and total grants paid during that year. In 2010, the board of directors approved 929 grants totaling $70.3 million, some of which will be paid in future years. Also, $71.5 million was paid on 1,908 grants, some of which were approved in prior years.

In addition to its regular grantmaking program, Houston Endowment matches, on a two-for-one basis, personal gifts made to charitable organizations by the foundation’s directors and staff. In 2010, $442,651 in grants was paid under the matching gift program. Under a directed grant program that allows directors and other program participants designated by the board to designate certain amounts in grants to charitable organizations of their choosing, $587,000 in grants was paid in 2010. The foundation also made grants of $80,000 to organizations that support philanthropy and the charitable sector.

The foundation prepares financial statements on a modified basis of cash receipts and disbursements that generally follows accounting principles used for federal excise tax purposes.

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