PRDV009: Writing Grant Proposals

The Key Facts on U.S. Nonprofits and Foundations 2021 is an annual publication from Candid, combining the wisdom from Foundation Center's former Key Facts on U.S. Foundations report and GuideStar's former Nine Things You Might Not Know about U.S. Nonprofits. It offers at-a-glance information about the nonprofit sector. Where does nonprofit revenue come from? Is foundation giving growing? We answer these questions and more.

Key Facts on U.S. Nonprofits and Foundations

1,812,473 nonprofits are registered with the IRS 

Some nonprofits are not required to register. How many is unknown.

The most common type of nonprofit is the public charity

501(c) refers to the section of the Internal Revenue Code under which these nonprofits are tax exempt. Public charities and private foundations are grouped under the same section–501(c)(3).

What are public charities?

• Primarily administer programs; occasionally make grants
• What most people think of when they hear the word nonprofit
• Small and local (e.g., an animal shelter) or large and national or international (e.g., Save the Children)

What are private foundations?

• Primarily grantmaking institutions; occasionally administer programs
• Examples include the Ford Foundation and The California Endowment
• Typically are founded by and receive support from a small number of individuals or corporations

There are more than 30 other types of 501(c) nonprofits in the U.S., including social welfare groups, business associations, veterans' organizations, labor unions, and federal credit unions.

Public charities are everywhere

You can find them in every state, and in U.S. territories.

They raise money from a variety of sources

53% of all charities rely on contributions for the majority of their revenue. For 32% of charities, the majority of revenue comes from program services.

Contributions include government grants, individual donations, and foundation grants.

Most are small

Public charities by annual revenue

Source: Based on most recent IRS filing available, 2016 or later, for organizations appearing on any 2020 BMF. Excludes organizations that did not report revenue
figures, with the exception of the chart above where organizations filing form 990-N are included in the lowest tier.

They reflect every aspect of life

Top 5 public charity subject areas

Foundations

Private foundations

• Independent: Includes most of the nation's largest foundations. Generally established by individual donors or donor families.
• Operating: Primarily run their own programs, but some also make grants. Generally established by individuals or families.
• Corporate: Established by large or small businesses, although legally separate.

Community foundations

• Raise funds from the public and engage in grantmaking primarily within a defined geographic area

Foundations by the numbers

Source (left): Based on most recent IRS filing, 2016 or later, available for organizations appearing on any 2020 IRS BMF.

*In the previous Key Facts, the count of community foundations is listed as 1,067. Due to changes in methodology allowing us to identify more community foundations on the BMF, the figure increased by 11%.

Foundation giving over time

Source: Based on IRS filings associated with the given fiscal year. Most recent complete year is 2018.

Foundation giving is a modest but growing slice of overall giving in the U.S.

Source: Figures from Giving USA Foundation, Giving USA, 2020. Per Giving USA criteria, corporate foundations are included under 'corporations' and community foundations are excluded.

Grantmaking priorities

What do foundations fund most?

Top 5 subject areas by percentage of total funding

Top 5 support strategies by percentage of total funding

Top 5 populations served by percentage of total funding

Source (for all figures on this page): 2018. Subject, population, and support strategy categories are based on the Philanthropy Classification System. The full value of each grant is counted toward each applicable category.

• 23% of grant dollars from U.S. funders were awarded for international purposes
• The median number of grants awarded by foundations was 73
• 1%of recipient organizations captured nearly half of grant dollars
• 3of the top 10grants recipients by dollars were providers of donor-advised funds*

*A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a charitable giving account that is established at a public charity. DAFs allow donors to receive an immediate tax deduction, but allow grants to be awarded over time to eligible nonprofits.

In order to analyze grantmaking priorities by U.S. funders, Candid examines all grants of $10,000 or more awarded by 1,000 of the largest U.S.-based private and community foundations. These funders account for about half of all grantmaking dollars awarded by private and community foundations.

---

Source: Anna Koob, https://search.issuelab.org/resource/key-facts-on-u-s-nonprofits-and-foundations-2021.html
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.