Grants for recreation, sports, and social clubs

Name: Top 25 grants made to recreation centers, sports teams, and social clubs
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

9,440 recreation centers, sports teams, and social clubs received at least $680.5 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 10,814 grants made from 5,862 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 5,862 foundations, 73% made just a single grant to recreation orgs, and 5% made grants to four or more recreation orgs. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$680,456,329

Total grant dollars given to recreation, sports, and social clubs

10,814

Number of grants made annually to recreation, sports, and social clubs

5,862

Number of grantmakers funding recreation, sports, and social clubs

$1,000

Median grant size to recreation, sports, and social clubs

Foundations that support recreation centers, sports teams, and social clubs

Out of all grants made to recreation, sports, and social clubs, 82% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 77% of the dollar-value of grants to recreation orgs. Foundations funding recreation orgs also made grants to food banks, youth development programs, multiservice human service organizations, educational service providers, and homeless shelters.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	4,816
Medium	629
Large	409

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	117
Private	4,963
Corporate	249
Other	533

Grants made

Grants made to recreation orgs	Number of grantmakers
1	4,315
2-3	1,246
4-10	245
11+	56

Top 10 foundations supporting recreation centers, sports teams, and social clubs

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to recreation orgs	Number of grants made to recreation orgs	Median grant size
Carmax Foundation	VA	National	2.3%	214	$545
Baird Foundation	WI	National	2.3%	170	$250
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.2%	150	$169
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.4%	136	$1,000
NRA Foundation	VA	National	0.3%	111	$2,494
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.3%	88	$1,450
Salesforce Com Foundation	CA	National	0.1%	87	$100
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	82	$425
Chubb Charitable Foundation	PA	National	0.6%	81	$200
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.4%	75	$480

See all grantmaking to recreation, sports, and social clubs

Recreation centers, sports teams, and social clubs grantees

Recreation, sports, and social clubs with more than $5 million in total revenues received 85% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 22% of all recreation orgs.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	10,736
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	78

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$1,000
$100k-$500k	$1,133
$500k-$1M	$1,433
$1M-$5M	$1,200
>$5M	$1,000

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	1,188
California	1,075
Texas	549
Pennsylvania	428
Other	7,574

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	1,037
Washington DC	424
Los Angeles	323
Chicago	295
Other	7,391

Top 25 grants made to recreation, sports, and social clubs

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Camp Bowie Service Center	$96,913,317	Per Agreement	Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP)
Big Ten Conference (B1G)	$37,673,305	To Enhance the Quality of Intercollegiate Athletics	Pasadena Tournament of Roses
PAC-12 Conference	$37,673,305	To Enhance the Quality of Intercollegiate Athletics	Pasadena Tournament of Roses
Kstate Athletics	$35,602,303	Scholarships/support	Kansas State University Foundation
Georgia Tech Athletic Association	$30,876,085	Allocation of General Support	Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference	$22,553,741	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
Big Ten Conference (B1G)	$22,386,375	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
Southeastern Conference (SEC)	$17,393,802	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Sports Club Council	$14,930,594	Support for Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture - Africa	Howard G Buffett Foundation (HGBF)
PAC-12 Conference	$14,476,159	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
Event Facilities Fort Worth	$12,500,000	General Support	Burnett Foundation / Dee Kelly JR Ttee
Us Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOC)	$10,162,464	General Support	United States Olympic Endowment
American Athletic Conference	$9,913,799	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
Big East Conference	$9,185,726	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
NRA Foundation	$8,148,169	Education	Margie and Robert E. Petersen Foundation
Atlantic 10 Conference	$8,068,661	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
University of Chattanooga Foundation	$8,000,000	General Support	The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
USA Hockey	$8,000,000	NHL Grant	USA Hockey Foundation
Mountain West Conference	$7,605,493	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
Conference USA	$7,190,940	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
Mid-American Conference	$6,976,808	Scholarships/grants/sponsorship	National Collegiate Athletic Association
Camp Bowie Service Center	$6,692,348	Per Agreement	Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP)
Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore	$6,564,659	General Support	The Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore
Sun Belt Conference	$5,934,593	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association
West Coast Conference (WCC)	$5,841,648	Scholarships/grants	National Collegiate Athletic Association

See all grants to recreation, sports, and social clubs

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 "Recreation, sports, and social clubs" category for this page is determined by the "N00: Recreation, Sports, Leisure, Athletics: General" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.