Giving Compass' Take:

• Philanthropy News Digest discusses new data that shows how international giving by US foundations reached historic highs in recent years, driven largely by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

• Another interesting takeaway is the growth of international giving by community foundations, which may indicate there's a more global definition of community-based philanthropy.

• Given this rise in giving, it may be a good time to rethink what international development really means.

International giving by large US foundations reached an all-time high of $9.3 billion in 2015, up some 306 percent, from $2.1 billion, in 2002, when Foundation Center first started tracking it on an annual basis. During the same period, international giving also increased as a percent of total giving, from 13.9 percent in 2002 to 28.4 percent in 2015.

While the number of grants to international organizations and causes has stayed relatively stable, up some 31 percent (from 10,600 to 13,900) since 2002, average grant size has increased more than three-fold, from $200,900 in 2002 to $604,500 in 2015.

Much of that growth can be attributed to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which accounted for more than half (51 percent) of all international giving from 2011 to 2015. When Gates Foundation grantmaking is excluded, we see that international giving grew at a somewhat slower rate (21 percent) during the five-year period, reaching a high of nearly $4 billion in 2015.

Like foundation giving in general, international giving by US foundations is largely project-focused: despite continued calls from nonprofit leaders for foundations to provide more general operating support, 65 percent of international giving by US foundations from 2011 to 2015 was for specific projects or programs.

Read the full article about international giving by US foundations by Larry McGill at PhilanTopic.