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Are smaller family foundations getting lost in the philanthropic fuss about billionaires and celebrities? It turns out they're giving away $21b a year without fanfare.

"Family foundations are quickly springing up across the country as baby boomers sell successful businesses or take buyouts from top corporate jobs. The number of these charitable entities grew by more than one-third between 2002 and 2011 even as the economy gyrated, according to the Foundation Center, a philanthropy-data research firm in New York. And annual giving by such foundations shot up by 72 percent in the same period, to more than $21 billion a year, says the firm. But next to the sweeping efforts of billionaires who are trying to eradicate major diseases, or former presidents who are tackling climate change and safeguarding global democracy, local philanthropists—and their family foundations—can seem like small potatoes." -- Kelly Greene, the Wall Street Journal


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