VOA慢速英语20060728a

ECONOMICS¹ REPORT - The Rise of Foundations (Part 2 in a Series)By Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Friday, July 28, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.




As we told you last week, the United States has about seventy thousand foundations for charitable giving. They are required to give away at least five percent of their total holdings each year.

Most foundations are formed by wealthy individuals. People who put their wealth into foundations can become known for their social good works. At the same time, gifts to charity can bring tax savings².

Fifty percent of the value of a gift to a public charity can be used to reduce taxes. For private foundations, that percentage is smaller -- thirty percent -- but still a lot.

Not surprisingly, strong foundation growth takes place during strong economic growth. For example, foundations grew quickly during the nineteen forties and fifties. A growing economy and changes in tax laws also led to sharp growth during the eighties.

The economic expansion of the middle and late nineties resulted in record foundation growth. In two thousand, as the stock market reached its highest level, so did the number of new foundations. More than six thousand that year alone.

Researcher Steven Laurence says foundation growth has shown surprising staying power since then, even as economic growth slowed. He says new foundations continued to appear at a rate of about two percent in two thousand four. Mister Laurence is the top researcher at a group that studies such things, the Foundation Center.

But foundations can also run out of money and close. This happens at an average rate of one percent a year.

Many of the rules that govern foundations come from the Tax Reform Act of nineteen sixty-nine. Congress established a number of differences between public charities and private foundations. The new law defined³ all individual, corporate⁴ and operating foundations as private. That meant greater restrictions⁵ and different financial reporting rules than for community foundations.

At the time, some people thought the changes in the law would mean the end of private foundations. The number of public charities grew in the nineteen seventies. In some years, the holdings of private foundations even shrunk.

Today public charities represent just one percent of all foundations. But they are responsible for almost one-tenth of all foundation giving.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Next week, listen for the third and final part of our series on foundations. Part one can be found at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

2 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

3 defined   

adj 定义的; 清晰的

参考例句：

• These categories are not well defined. 这些类别划分得不太明确。
• The powers of a judge are defined by law. 法官的权限是由法律规定的。

4 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制