Grants for community foundations

1,133 community foundations received at least $1.1 billion in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 2,613 grants made from 1,736 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,500. Of these 1,736 foundations, 85% made just a single grant to foundations, and 3% made grants to four or more foundations. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.
$1,092,613,857
Total grant dollars given to community foundations
2,613
Number of grants made annually to community foundations
1,736
Number of grantmakers funding community foundations
$1,500
Median grant size to community foundations

Foundations that support community foundations

Out of all grants made to community foundations, 73% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 74% of the dollar-value of grants to foundations. Foundations funding foundations also made grants to multiservice human service organizations, colleges, educational service providers, scholarship organizations, and food banks.

Foundation size

Foundation size Number of grantmakers
Small
 
1,281
Medium
 
213
Large
 
241
Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type Number of grantmakers
Community
 
76
Private
 
1,399
Corporate
 
109
Other
 
152

Grants made

Grants made to foundations Number of grantmakers
1
 
1,483
2-3
 
185
4-10
 
50
11+
 
18

Top 10 foundations supporting community foundations

Grantmaker State Geographic focus Percent of grant dollars to foundations Number of grants made to foundations Median grant size
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) TN Metro 0.2% 93 $250
Rasmuson Foundation AK State 0.3% 48 $310
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF) WA Metro 0.8% 46 $1,000
Baird Foundation WI National 0.8% 37 $500
Chubb Charitable Foundation PA National 0.1% 27 $100
JP Morgan Chase Foundation NY National 1.4% 25 $500
Land O'Lakes Foundation MN National 0.4% 23 $600
Abbvie Foundation IL National 0.1% 23 $200
The Mccune Foundation CA Metro 3.0% 17 $1,000
LPL Financial Foundation MA National 0.7% 16 $500

Community foundations grantees

Community foundations with more than $5 million in total revenues received 92% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 68% of all foundations.

Grant amounts

Size of grant Number of grants
<$10k
 
2,527
$10k-$25k
 
0
$25k-$100k
 
0
$100k+
 
86

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue Median grant size
<$100k
 
$1,500
$100k-$500k
 
$1,000
$500k-$1M
 
$1,500
$1M-$5M
 
$2,000
>$5M
 
$1,500

Grantee states

State of grantee Number of grants
California
 
346
Florida
 
157
Texas
 
136
Ohio
 
133
Other
 
1,841

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee Number of grants
Nashville
 
107
New York City
 
92
Los Angeles
 
66
Riverside
 
55
Other
 
1,828

Top 25 grants made to community foundations

Grantee Grant size Purpose Grantmaker
East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) $230,000,000 Grants/donation Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP)
East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) $197,500,000 Project Support Kaiser Permanente
The Chicago Community Trust $100,705,810 General Nonprofit Support Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
California Community Foundation $50,000,000 Project Support Kaiser Permanente
Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation $24,694,536 Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundation Greater Horizons
Central Kansas Community Foundation $23,975,151 Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundation Greater Horizons
South Central Community Foundation $17,316,125 Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundation Greater Horizons
Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico $15,167,994 Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundation Greater Horizons
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta $15,000,042 For the Joseph B. Whitehead Fund To Support Achieve Atlanta, An Initiative To Improve the Postsecondary Success of Students in Atlanta Public Schools. Joseph B Whitehead Foundation
The Denver Foundation $14,300,000 Project Support Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado
Marin Community Foundation $13,761,932 For the Dimarco Harleen Family Fund of the Marin Community Foundation. for the Jane, Sam and Scott Miller Fund. for the Dimarco Harleen Family Fund of the Marin Community Foundation. for the Jane, Sam and Scott Miller Fund. for General Support of the Presidio Theater. for the Marin Retirement Communities Scholarship Fund. San Francisco Foundation (TSFF)
Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) $13,645,903 Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundation Greater Horizons
The Chicago Community Trust $13,228,162 Civic & Social The Rhoades Foundation
Community First Foundation $13,144,377 For General Operating Support The Denver Foundation
Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley $12,460,000 Project Support: Radio Kingston Corp Novo Foundation
Central New York Community Foundation $10,504,096 Elsa Allyn Soderberg Fund Transfer Allyn Family Foundation
Foundation for the Carolinas $9,500,000 Section 139 Disaster Relief Hyatt Hotels Foundation
Indian River Community Foundation $9,340,239 Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundation Greater Horizons
Omaha Community Foundation $9,224,772 General The Harper Family Foundation
Foundation for Detroits Future $8,333,333 For the Detroit Institute of Arts Settlement Project To Expedite Detroits Bankruptcy Settlement Assist in Honoring Pension Commitments and Preserve the Institutes Collection for Public Benefit The Ford Foundation
Omaha Community Foundation $7,913,207 General The Harper Family Foundation
San Francisco Foundation (TSFF) $7,500,000 For General Operating Support William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Arizona Community Foundation $7,498,969 Program Support Arizona Community Foundation
The Community Foundation $7,472,184 Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundation Greater Horizons
The Oregon Community Foundation $6,320,924 Cash OCF Joseph E Weston Public Foundation
Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Community foundations" category for this page is determined by the "T31: Community Foundations" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.