The Power of Now

While most trusts and foundations in the UK and the USA are still established in perpetuity and maintain endowments, the limited life option is beginning to attract more attention. Interest and discussion has been spurred on by the heightened visibility of individual philanthropists. Research to date on this topic, however, has been sparse. Very little reliable empirical data has been collected on the practice of spend out, or on the motivations, strategies and experiences associated with those trusts and foundations that have decided to spend out. What little research that has been undertaken has focused primarily on spend out foundations located in the United States. Consequently, little information is available to assist those donors, trustees, and staff in the UK and Ireland who may wish to consider and/or implement a spend out plan. The Power of Now seeks to better understand the phenomenon of spending out and attempts to draw an illustrative picture of what a sample of existing and recently closed spend out trusts in the United Kingdom are doing and why.

 To download the report, please see the Institute for Philanthropy's website.