Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. How much do foundations change their missions over time? Grant making emphases may shift due to the evolving preferences of trustees and directors, the changing needs of grant recipients, the location of the successor trustees, and so on. A countervailing force to this change is donor control. The founding donor’s stipulations and values figure prominently as legal and sentimental forces that could enhance mission permanence despite the passing of generations. This study first proposes a mission change theory framework designed for the long time span of endowed family foundations. Via changes in the stated location of the grant making and the field of the grants made (e.g., from grants for religious instruction to grants for arts), we then measure the revealed preferences of trustees and how their grant making practices change over the decades.

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