Grantmaking foundations distributed $19.46 billion to nonprofit groups last year, a 22 percent increase over 1997 and the largest total amount recorded in U.S. history, according to a report issued by the Foundation Center.

The 1998 increase is the largest recorded by the Center in its 24 years of foundation giving research.

The Center reports foundation giving has increased by $5.6 billion - or about 41 percent - since 1996. Total grantmaking to nonprofits has "more than doubled" since 1990, the Center's report says.

The grant information is included in the Foundation Center's 1999 "Foundation Giving: Yearbook of Facts and Figures on Private, Corporate and Community Foundations" scheduled to be released in July.

A number of factors have combined to allow for the increase in American philanthropic spending, including the stock market's healthy gains, a near-record $15.8 billion in gifts and bequests from individuals during the last two years and low or no inflation, the report states.

Community, corporate and independent foundations all reported significant increases in grantmaking during '97 and '98, the Center reports.

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