As the pandemic’s misery continued last fall, foundation leaders like Robert Ross of the California Endowment discovered a way to pump hundreds of millions of dollars to nonprofits working to minimize the damage: The bond market.
With its $300 million bond offering in January, the California Endowment became the latest private foundation to issue debt to cover a surge in grant making.
The endowment is one of nine grant makers that have issued a total of $3 billion in debt since June to cover increases in their grant making.
First out of the gate were the Ford, Doris Duke and MacArthur foundations. In addition to the California Endowment, the Bush, Kellogg, Mellon, and Rockefeller foundations and the UJA-Federation of New York are recent