Grants for private foundations

Name: Top 25 grants made to private foundations
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

4,251 private foundations received at least $1.6 billion in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 3,195 grants made from 2,532 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 2,532 foundations, 86% made just a single grant to private foundations, and 1% made grants to four or more private foundations. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$1,629,806,269

Total grant dollars given to private foundations

3,195

Number of grants made annually to private foundations

2,532

Number of grantmakers funding private foundations

$1,000

Median grant size to private foundations

Foundations that support private foundations

Out of all grants made to private foundations, 82% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 78% of the dollar-value of grants to private foundations. Foundations funding private foundations also made grants to multiservice human service organizations, christian organizations, colleges, and educational service providers.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	2,092
Medium	249
Large	190

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	56
Private	2,181
Corporate	111
Other	184

Grants made

Grants made to private foundations	Number of grantmakers
1	2,198
2-3	288
4-10	35
11+	11

Top 10 foundations supporting private foundations

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to private foundations	Number of grants made to private foundations	Median grant size
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.1%	30	$2,250
Synchrony Foundation	CT	National	0.0%	21	$150
Charity Partners Foundation	MA	National	0.1%	21	$9
Baird Foundation	WI	National	0.3%	18	$387
Dollar General Employee Assistance Foundation	TN	National	1.9%	16	$2,000
NFL Foundation	NY	National	0.1%	13	$5,000
Community Foundation of North Central Wi	WI	Metro	0.4%	13	$350
Pg&e Psea Emergency Assistance Fund	CA	National	3.3%	13	$500
Carl and Camilla Rietman Charitable Foundation	OR	National	9.5%	11	$2,500
Arkansas Community Foundation	AR	State	0.0%	11	$1,400

See all grantmaking to private foundations

Private foundations grantees

Private foundations with more than $5 million in total revenues received 85% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 8% of all private foundations.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	3,121
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	74

Grant amount by grantee size

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

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	459
California	280
Florida	230
Pennsylvania	199
Other	2,027

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	457
Chicago	166
Washington DC	116
Los Angeles	113
Other	2,029

Top 25 grants made to private foundations

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Dogwood Health Trust	$800,857,060	Assistance To Local Nonprofit	Anc Healthcare
Adelson Family Foundation	$116,292,396	General Charitable Purposes	Dr Miriam and Sheldon G Adelson Charitable Trust
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)	$45,365,385	Mbari	David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Making Waves Foundation (MWF)	$35,875,000	Real Estate Expenses	Scully Memorial Foundation
Dr Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation	$29,293,459	General Charitable Purposes	Dr Miriam and Sheldon G Adelson Charitable Trust
Noble Research Institute LLC	$26,000,000	Operating Support	The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
Nature Conservation Trust	$25,216,340	Support for Rwanda Institute of Conservation Agriculture - Rwanda	Howard G Buffett Foundation (HGBF)
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation	$25,000,000	Infrastructure - Rehabilitation for Substance Abuse - Us	Howard G Buffett Foundation (HGBF)
Making Waves Foundation (MWF)	$24,200,000	Real Estate Acquisition	Scully Memorial Foundation
Chicago CRED	$23,565,000	Fund Operations and Programming	The Chicago Community Trust
Nature Conservation Trust	$23,393,527	Support for Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture - Africa	Howard G Buffett Foundation (HGBF)
Center To Combat Human Trafficking	$20,110,215	Community Outreach	ASU Foundation
Vogt Family Affiliated Fund of the OKC Community Community Foundation	$20,000,015	Endowment for Operating Funds of Diversion Hub Included in Maps4 Fbo Justice Involved Individuals	Arnall Family Foundation
Heatherington Foundation for Innovation and Education in Health Care	$20,000,000	General Support	FamilyCare
Joy in Blue Foundation	$19,841,197	Endowment Grant (See Statement 17)	Rathmann Family Foundation
Duke Endowment	$19,600,000	To Support Scaling Plan	Blue Meridian Partners
Chick-fil-A Foundation	$18,683,762	Funding Support for Operations and Grant Making To Organizations That Support Youth Entrepreneurship, Innovative Education and Emerging Leader Development.	A Good Name Foundation
Winshape Foundation	$17,392,000	Funding for Operations	A Good Name Foundation
Delta Dental Community Care Foundation	$14,000,000		Delta Dental of California
Delta Dental Community Care Foundation	$14,000,000	Enterprise Contribution To DDCCF	Delta Dental of California
The Broad	$12,000,000	Towards Operating Support	Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation
Wexner Foundation	$11,000,000	Support the Development of Jewish Professional and Volunteer Leaders	The Wexner Family Charitable Fund
Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI)	$10,942,544	General Operating Support	Jacobs Family Foundation
Charles Koch Foundation	$10,000,000	Support	Zero Zero One
Grace and Mercy Foundation	$9,500,000	General Support	The Fuller Foundation

See all grants to private foundations

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 "Private foundations" category for this page is determined by the "T20: Private Foundations" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.