Rhode Island Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report: a year of transition, planning, growth + impact
We’re excited to share our 2023 Annual Report and hope that you find it to be a useful reflection on a year of transition, future planning, and impressive growth and impact.
As you’ll see throughout its pages, the team at the Foundation ably balanced effective grantmaking, inspiring philanthropy, and listening and learning from the Rhode Islanders we serve during a transformative time.
Last year, thanks to the generosity of our donors, we were pleased to award a record $89 million in grants to approximately 2,500 nonprofit organizations; two-thirds of which were donor-directed, and one-third of which was directed through the Foundation’s community investments programs. On page 8, you will find an illustration of how those grant dollars were allocated by subject matter to meet need throughout the state, and you will see just how much alignment there is between the grants that our team is responsible for and those that our donors direct. Together, we are making an incredible impact.
Our team continues to focus on careful endowment stewardship, and we have weathered market fluctuations quite well. At the end of 2023, total assets stood at approximately $1.4 billion, and our total fund investment return for the year was 14.2 percent. In addition, we raised $46 million in gifts.
As we continue to assess the Foundation’s fundraising, grantmaking, and programmatic efforts, we have also focused on gathering input from the community to inform our future focus. We have gathered perspective through a series of research efforts, by crisscrossing the state to visit grantees and donors, hosting sector-specific convenings and open community conversations.
Later this year, we will share more about all we’ve learned and about how we plan to intentionally put that into practice in our grantmaking, beyond-grantmaking, and development efforts to catalyze generosity and action across our state.
We are deeply grateful to the generous Rhode Islanders who partner with us to turn their philanthropy into a powerful force for good, and to the dedicated nonprofits who serve our community.
We invite you to access the full 2023 Rhode Island Foundation Annual Report, including our financial performance, activities, the inspiring stories of some of our many incredible donors, and more. Click here to launch or download.
All the best,
David & Al
David N. Cicilline, President and CEO
G. Alan Kurose, MD, MBA, FACP, Chairman of the Board
