Bloomberg: Inside The Masters Foundation Numbers

Bloomberg's Michael Buteau takes a look at the Masters Foundation, which slumped 37 percent in 2012 donations, from $6.8 million in its first year of 2011 to $4.3 million in '12.

More interesting are some of the notes on donations made and who is making them.

Stanley Druckenmiller, one of the best-performing hedge-fund managers of the past three decades and an avid golfer, was among 34 people who didn’t follow 2011 donations with another the following year. Tax records filed for the foundation show 24 people or organizations made gifts in 2012.

“You don’t fill up your tank when its 3/4 full, you fill it up when it’s 3/4 empty,” said Andrew Morton, a Chicago-based philanthropy attorney and chairman of the Sports & Entertainment Law Group at Handler Thayer LLP. “I suspect that’s how this organization is going to operate.”

The foundation gave $1.7 million to eight golf groups, including $1 million to the World Golf Foundation, the same totals from a year earlier. Outgoing donations accounted for 39 percent of the foundation’s revenue in 2012, 34 percent more than legally required under tax law, according to Morton.

“Their grant-making activity is far exceeding their legal requirement,” Morton said.