The Center on Nonprofits at the Urban Institute, the Foundation Center and Guidestar have recently released findings from their study of the nation's 10,000 largest foundations based on 2001 data according to the Philanthropy Journal. (Click here for the full study.)

If there was ever a "so what" from a study, that's certainly my take. Here's some of the findings:

7 in 10 foundations have no paid staff (ok, maybe this is interesting)

Among foundations with paid staff, the median compensation for top execs exceeds $100,000 in 2003 and tops $500,000 for the largest corporations (ok, equally interesting, telling a big story)

For foundations that have staff, the ratio of administrative expenses to charitable expenses is higher (duh -- a better survey would have dug deeper to understand what all these staff do)

There is an economy of scale among foundations who give more (in other words, it doesn't necessarily cost more to give bigger sized grants)

It costs more to give away money for international programming (there are more government rules wouldn't you expect) and to do program-related investments (yup, of course)

Independent foundations with staff and large grantmakers are more likely to compensate their governing boards at a median compensation rate of $8,000 (gotta say that THIS item is most interesting and really deserves more study -- maybe some implications for the nonprofit sector?)

So, bottom line, there are some interesting findings but on the whole...?