In 2012 the world’s problems grew more complex, but America’s top 400 charities saw very little growth in their resources to address them. A forecast issued late in the year by The Chronicle on Philanthropy projected their collective growth at just 1 percent. The outlook is only marginally better for endowments, with returns on their invested capital hovering around 5 percent—as they did in 2011. And while some foundations bucked the trend and made double-digit investment gains in recent years, the average foundation in Chronicle’s analysis netted out 14.9 percent lower than its value in 2007.