The Daniels Fund, the region’s biggest charitable foundation, will scale back charitable grants and cut administrative expenses next year after experiencing a roughly 25 percent drop in overall assets.

The Denver-based organization started the year with almost $1.3 billion in assets. But it expects to finish 2008 with less than $1 billion.

“It won’t be business as usual here,” Daniels Fund CEO Linda Childears told the Rocky Mountain News. “All of my foundation colleagues are going through the same thing.”

Childears said the group won’t know until the end of the year exactly how much the downturn in financial markets has cut into its investment portfolio. It currently has about $955 million after taking a hit in a diverse array of financial instruments. Assets last dipped below $1 billion in 2003.

The group, established with the $1 billion fortune of cable pioneer Bill Daniels, will also cut its expenses by laying off four full-time employees and eliminating two vacant positions.

Grant money going to various nonprofits through Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah will be cut by $6.8 million to $31.8 million in 2009. Funding will be allocated to organizations providing emergency services to the most vulnerable populations.

The foundation will suspend its giving to national organizations.

The Daniels Fund will still award 250 Daniels Scholarships to college students in 2009, but it will scale back other parts of the program.