Private foundations continue to distribute more than the required 5 percent of assets in 2014 despite lower asset growth, according to Foundation Source, a provider of services for private foundations.

The Annual Report on Private Foundations released Thursday shows that private foundations with less than $50 million in assets averaged 7.6 percent in charitable distributions in 2014, nearly equal to the 7.5 percent distributed in 2013. Private foundations are required to distribute 5 percent of net assets from the previous year.

The report includes information on foundations with less than $50 million in assets. The report is based on the transactions of 769 Foundation Source clients. Foundations with less than $1 million in assets averaged even higher distributions at 13.2 percent, says the report.

“A common refrain among the general public, and even among philanthropy professionals, is that private foundations only meet the 5 percent minimum distribution requirement each year,” says Robert Chartener, CEO of Foundation Source. “However, we have collected data on the activities of private foundations with assets below $50 million for several years, and this community, which represents 98 percent of all U.S. private foundations, has consistently and significantly exceeded their minimum distribution requirement.”

The foundations saw an average asset growth of 3.7 percent compared with 2013, when foundation assets grew 20.7 percent on average. Although foundations with assets of $10 million to $50 million saw growth of 4.6 percent in assets in 2014, the smallest foundations, those under $1 million, experienced a 2 percent decline. Various factors, including market returns, contributed to the drop, such as the amount of contributions made to the foundations during the year, says Page Snow, chief philanthropic officer of Foundation Source. The unusually good market in 2013 also helped asset levels that year, she says.

Despite the modest growth in assets, foundations gave more in 2014 than in the previous year. However, foundations with assets between $10 million and $50 million in assets increased their grant making the most, rising 28 percent over 2013, the survey says.

“As policies are currently being proposed that would mandate distribution levels for other charitable vehicles, such as donor-advised funds, there’s been speculation about the possible impact of such requirements. We believe that private foundations may prove useful bellwethers in that the minimum distribution rate seems to be perceived by foundation donors as a floor, rather than a ceiling. The results of our report are therefore potentially instructive for policy makers considering the imposition of distribution requirements for other charitable vehicles,” says Snow.