The philanthropic gap has widened even further between the 10 states with the most private foundation assets and the 10 states with the least, including Montana, a Helena group said Monday.

In 1988, the average total foundation assets in each of the top 10 states was $9.26 billion, compared with an average of $63 million in Montana and the nine states with the least foundation assets, according to the Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits of Helena. That amounts to a gap of $9.2 billion between the two groups of states.

In the latest statistics for 2005, showed the top 10 states had foundation assets averaging $36.8 billion compared with the bottom 10 states' average of $766 million. These statistics were available in 2007.

By 2005, the gap in average foundation assets between the top ten and bottom ten states had quadrupled to $36.1 billion, the institute said.

"To illustrate the asset disparities another way, the report shows the aggregate total of assets held by the top 10 states account for nearly 67 percent of the nation's foundation assets, whereas the bottom 10 states account for approximately 1.4 percent of the total," the institute said.

What's more, the per capita grant-making disparities between the top and bottom states are worsening, the report said, despite the fact that the bottom states are low-population states.

In 2005, the top 10 states averaged $171 per capita in making grants, while the 10 bottom states averaged $34, for a gap of $137.

Institute Director Mike Schechtman said the information was released in anticipation of the one-year anniversary of the national conference on rural philanthropy held in Missoula in August 2007. The meeting highlighted the philanthropic challenges facing Montana and other rural states, he said, as well as the excellent work done in rural America to address these issues and strengthen their communities.

"Our report, however, highlights the accelerated growth in philanthropic disparities that dominates every day realities for nonprofits in rural America," he said.

Montana held $442.8 million in foundation assets in 2005 to rank 49th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the report said.

The institute said over the past 15 years, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine have consistently ranked among the 10 states with the least foundation assets. The institute refers to them as the Philanthropic Divide states. Idaho and New Mexico have been slightly above the bottom 10 states for most of the past 15 years, but dropped into the bottom 10 after growth in foundation assets elevated Wyoming and Maine from the bottom 10 states in foundation assets.

Topping the list in foundation assets were, in order: New York, California, Washington, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida and Ohio.

Schechtman said the Big Sky Institute came up with the term "Philanthropic Divide" in 2000 to focus attention on the huge disparities between states in foundation assets.

The institute, which works to strengthen philanthropy and the nonprofit sector in Montana and the other Philanthropic Divide states, is researching aspects of the gap, with some financial help from several foundations.

The report is available on the Big Sky Institute's Web site: www.bigskyinstitute.org.

On the Web

Big Sky Institute's report