Giving and foundations

Anyone who gives money away in order to change something needs a surprisingly exact vocabulary: la dotación fundacional is the capital that must never be spent, la subvención finalista a grant tied to one purpose, la rendición de los fondos recibidos the proof that it went there. The second entry is worth stopping at. La dotación is whatever a thing has been fitted out with, and Spanish uses that one noun everywhere: la dotación fundacional is an endowment, la dotación de enfermería is a ward's staffing, la dotación del buque is the ship's crew, and la dotación del camión de bomberos is the kit on board — and, on a callout, the four people who came with it. English has no single word for the idea and picks a different one each time: « endowment », « staffing », « crew », « equipment ». The link is the verb dotar, to fit out; what a thing was fitted out with is its dotación, whether that is money, people or hose.