Thank you.
I think the rebound in the stock market is certainly a plus factor from the charitable donation perspective, but the drop in the stock market has had two major impacts. One is that the number and size of donations of stock have dropped substantially. They should recover to some degree with the rebound in the stock market, but the bigger impact has been the drop in the value of endowment funds. I would say on average they're probably down about 30%, or probably 20% now. The disbursements from those endowment funds are based upon the market value of the assets in the endowment fund, so disbursements have dropped on average 20% to 30%. Some universities have stopped disbursements totally for this year.
So while the rebound in the market will certainly help, there are still some major fund-raising challenges. A lot of people have had to defer their pledges for fulfilling their donations because of the decline in the market. I just think that given the fact that there is a precedent in the United States for exempting gifts of private company shares and gifts of real estate, there's every reason to believe we should be on a competitive playing field with the United States, because these gifts of capital assets are typically the ones that provide major donations to endowment funds and community foundations and so on, as well as universities and hospitals.
With respect to the private companies, I think that also is a major untapped source of potential donations when people start their own businesses. If the owner of the businesses is getting on in years and his children don't want to take over the business, typically they'd sell the business at that point in time. I think if they were exempt from capital gains tax, many of those owners would give serious consideration to donating a portion of their shares to a charity at the time they're selling the business and I think that would stimulate some major incremental gifts.
This is a long-term solution that's going to help our not-for-profit sector secure greater funds, so I think it's very good public policy. I think it's also very good politics. I was delighted to hear Mr. Mulcair confirm his support. Given the fact that we have a minority government, I think it would be great if all parties could communicate their support for this measure, and then it will happen.