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Philanthropy gives a lot to science, technology and medicine. Foundations alone — not counting personal donations — granted $1.2 billion to US science and medical research in 2005 (see graphs below). The broader category of health got an even bigger chunk of $3.4 billion.
Even when adjusted for inflation, philanthropic foundation granting in the United States has approximately doubled over the past decade or so. The fraction of this that goes to science, technology and medical research has stayed steady at about 7-8%.
In the world of biomedical research — an important focus of much philanthropy — all types of private, non-corporate funding are thought to provide more than $5 billion a year in the United States (see 'State of the donation'). That's about 1/6 the amount granted by the government's National Institutes of Health, and 1/12 of what�s spent by industry. In the UK, philanthropic funding from the Wellcome Trust rivals that from the government's Medical Research Council.
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