Who Funds What: The Funder Landscape

Grants come from five kinds of funders: federal agencies, state and local governments, private and corporate foundations, community foundations and their donor-advised funds, and intermediaries that regrant other people’s money. Each has a different source of money, a different motive, and a different price.

Current figures — verified 2026-08-11

Item	Value	Source
Total US charitable giving, 2025	$617.20 billion	Giving USA / IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
Share of US charitable giving by source, 2025	Individuals 63.8% ($394.20B); foundations 19.0% ($117.15B); bequests 10.1% ($62.19B); corporations 7.1% ($43.67B)	Giving USA / IU
Federal grants to state and local governments, FY2024 (estimated)	$1.1 trillion, about 16% of federal outlays and 3.9% of GDP	CRS R40638
Federal funds as a share of government revenue	36.1% of state revenue (FY2022); 6.2% of local revenue	CRS R40638
Private foundation minimum distribution	Generally 5% of the fair market value of noncharitable-use assets	IRS SOI
Donor-advised funds, FY2024	1,512 sponsors, 3.59 million accounts, $327.87B assets, $64.60B granted, 25.2% payout	DAF Research Collaborative
Community foundations in the CF Insights survey (2024)	Over 400 participants, nearly $159B in assets, over $16.5B in grants	Council on Foundations, CF Insights
Median corporate Total Community Investment, 2023	$22.9 million (N=219); top quartile $74.6 million or more	CECP, Giving in Numbers 2024
Registered US nonprofit organizations	1,935,344 (CY2023 IRS Business Master File)	Candid

These figures change. Verify against the linked source before relying on them. Report an outdated figure

Key takeaways

• Government grant dollars dwarf private philanthropy by an order of magnitude.
• Foundations supply roughly one-fifth of US charitable giving; individuals supply most.
• Corporate giving programs leave no public filing trail; corporate foundations do.
• Donor-advised funds have no application process and no payout requirement.
• Local funders run smaller applicant pools than national ones.

Who gives out grants?

Grant funders fall into five families distinguished by where the money originates. Government agencies grant appropriated tax revenue. Private foundations grant investment returns on an endowment. Corporate givers grant current earnings. Community foundations grant pooled local donations. Intermediaries grant money raised from other funders. Origin determines motive, size, timing, and paperwork.

The table below compares the five families on the dimensions that decide whether a funder is worth your time.

Funder family	Where the money comes from	Typical grant size	Application burden
Federal agency	Congressional appropriation	Large, multi-year	Very high
State or local government	Appropriation plus federal pass-through	Moderate	High
Private foundation	Endowment investment return	Small to large	Moderate
Corporate giver	Current-year earnings	Small, annual	Low
Community foundation	Pooled local donations	Small, renewable	Low

Scale is not evenly distributed across those families, and the imbalance matters for strategy. The current figures above show federal grants to state and local governments and total private charitable giving side by side: government assistance is roughly an order of magnitude larger than all US charitable giving combined, and foundations account for about a fifth of the charitable side. An organization whose entire revenue plan is “get foundation grants” has designed around a slice of a slice. The structural map of the whole system sits in Grant Funding Fundamentals.

Which government agencies fund grants?

Government grant funders operate at three levels. Federal agencies award directly to organizations and to states. State agencies award their own appropriations and re-compete federal money they receive by formula. Cities, counties, school districts, and special districts award smaller amounts, often from federal block grants they administer locally.

More than two dozen federal departments and independent agencies make grants, from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (Grants.gov, Grant-Making Agencies). Each publishes its own program rules on top of the government-wide requirements, which is why two federal grants can feel like different systems.

State and local government is not a smaller copy of the federal system; much of it is the federal system wearing a different name. Federal funds make up a substantial share of state and local government revenue, and the current figures above give the proportions (CRS R40638). A large portion of what a state agency competes out to local applicants is federal money distributed to the state by formula, which means the compliance rules are federal even though the competition is not. That combination — federal dollars, state-sized applicant pool — is the most consistently overlooked channel in the whole system, and it is covered in state and local government grants.

How does a private foundation differ from a public charity funder?

Every US charitable funder is legally one of two things. The Council on Foundations puts the rule bluntly: “Under the Internal Revenue Code, a charity is presumed to be a private foundation unless it can prove that it is a public charity” (Council on Foundations, Foundation Basics). Private foundations are typically funded by one donor, family, or company. Public charities draw broad public support.

The classification drives behavior an applicant can feel. Private foundations must distribute a minimum amount each year — generally the percentage of noncharitable-use asset value shown in the current figures above (IRS, SOI Tax Stats) — and failure carries a 30 percent excise tax on the undistributed income, with an additional 100 percent tax if the shortfall is not corrected within 90 days of IRS notification (IRS, Taxes on failure to distribute income). That mandatory floor is why private foundations grant predictably even in bad years.

One nuance changes prospect math. The required distribution counts more than grants: qualifying distributions include “grants, direct expenditures to accomplish charitable purposes, and charitable purpose operating and administrative expenses” (same IRS source). A heavily staffed foundation can satisfy the requirement while granting substantially less than the headline percentage of its assets to outside organizations.

Terminology within the private foundation category is convention rather than law. Council on Foundations notes that independent, family, and corporate labels “are not legally defined. Rather, they are commonly used in the field of philanthropy to distinguish the different kinds of private foundations.” Family foundations tend to be unstaffed and driven by trustee affinity; independent foundations tend to be staffed with published guidelines. Both file Form 990-PF, which itemizes every grant they made — the raw material for researching a funder with Form 990.

How do corporate grant funders differ from corporate giving programs?

A corporate foundation and a corporate giving program are two different things inside the same company. The corporate foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) private foundation with its own board, its own filing, and its own payout obligation. The corporate giving program is a budget line inside the operating company, with no separate legal existence and no public filing.

That difference determines whether you can research the funder at all. A corporate foundation itemizes its grants on Form 990-PF, so past grantees, amounts, and geography are public. A direct giving program leaves no filing trail, so research shifts to the company’s own impact or sustainability report, press releases, local market leadership, and the sponsorship desk. Absence from grants data is evidence of a direct giving program, not evidence that a company does not give.

Motive differs as much as structure. Direct giving usually sits under marketing, communications, human resources, or government affairs, so the approver is evaluated on brand, recruitment, retention, and community license to operate rather than on charitable outcomes. A pitch that leads with beneficiary need often lands worse than one that leads with audience, employee touchpoints, and alignment to the company’s facility map. Scale is modest relative to government funding; the current figures above give median and top-quartile corporate community investment from CECP’s company survey (CECP, Giving in Numbers 2024). Corporate money is also the most cyclical in a portfolio, because it tracks current earnings rather than endowment value. The channel in detail is corporate giving and corporate grants.

How do community foundation and donor-advised fund grants work?

A community foundation is a public charity that pools gifts from many donors into charitable funds serving a defined geographic area. Because it is publicly supported, it carries no private foundation payout requirement. It grants from its own discretionary funds, and it also administers donor-advised funds, which are advised by individual donors rather than by the foundation’s staff.

Whether you can apply depends on which fund you are looking at. Discretionary and field-of-interest funds run competitive grant programs open to applicants. Designated funds are locked to named recipients by the original donor. Scholarship funds serve individuals. Donor-advised funds have no application process at all — the donor recommends the grant, and the sponsoring organization executes it after verifying charitable status.

Donor-advised funds have no statutory annual distribution requirement, yet they distribute at a far higher rate than private foundations, and the current figures above give sponsor counts, account counts, assets, and payout (DAF Research Collaborative). The practical consequence is that DAF strategy is donor strategy: an anonymous check arriving from a national sponsor is a cultivation lead, not a grant program to research.

Community foundations are also the largest concentration of local advised funds in most regions, and administrative fees on those funds account for more than two-thirds of the average community foundation’s operating revenue (Council on Foundations, CF Insights). A community foundation relationship therefore opens two doors — a competitive grant program and access to the donors behind its advised funds. The mechanics are covered in community foundations and donor-advised funds.

Who are intermediary and regranting funders?

An intermediary funder does not spend its own endowment. It raises money from foundations, government agencies, or individual donors and regrants it — women’s funds, giving circles, pooled climate or housing funds, statewide arts councils distributing federal endowment money, and technical assistance providers that pair small grants with coaching.

Intermediaries exist because the funders behind them cannot make small grants efficiently. A national foundation that wants to move money to fifty neighborhood organizations would need staff it does not have, so it moves one large grant to an intermediary that already knows the field. For a small applicant, the intermediary is frequently the only reachable door to that money.

Two features make intermediaries worth deliberate pipeline space. Applications are usually shorter and decisions faster, because the intermediary was built to reduce transaction cost. And an intermediary grant functions as third-party diligence: a later funder reads it as evidence that an organization with local knowledge already vetted you. Fiscal sponsors are a related but distinct arrangement — a conduit for charitable status rather than a source of funds — and are covered in fiscal sponsorship for grant seekers.

What goes wrong when a grant funder type is misread?

Six mistakes follow from misreading a funder type, and each one wastes a full application cycle.

• Applying to a donor-advised fund. No application process exists; the money moves only when the advising donor recommends it.
• Treating absence from grants data as absence of giving. A corporate direct giving program files nothing, so it is invisible in Form 990 research.
• Pitching a corporate giver like a foundation. Marketing and human resources budgets are evaluated on audience and employee engagement, not on charitable need.
• Assuming a family foundation accepts unsolicited proposals. Many are unstaffed and fund only within the trustees’ existing relationships.
• Reading one year of a foundation’s filing as steady state. Excess distributions carry forward, so a large year can be followed by a quiet one.
• Starting national. National programs draw the largest applicant pools; local funders can verify an unknown organization by phone.

Frequently asked questions

How much grant money comes from government versus foundations?

Government assistance is far larger. The current figures above show federal grants to state and local governments alongside total US charitable giving and the foundation share of it. Foundations supply roughly a fifth of charitable giving, and charitable giving as a whole is much smaller than federal grant outlays. Both totals are updated annually.

Can you apply to a donor-advised fund?

No. A donor-advised fund is an account at a sponsoring charity, and grants are recommended by the donor who funded the account. Sponsors verify that a recipient is a qualified charity; they do not run competitions. The way to reach that money is to cultivate the individual donor.

What is the difference between a foundation and a charity?

Both can be 501(c)(3) organizations. A private foundation is typically funded by one source, must meet an annual distribution requirement, and files Form 990-PF. A public charity draws broad public support, has no payout requirement, and files Form 990. The classification determines a funder’s obligations and its transparency.

Which funder should a new organization approach first?

Local funders usually come first. Community foundations, local corporate giving, and regional intermediaries evaluate a small applicant pool, can verify an organization through direct reference, and grant smaller amounts more quickly. Those grants then serve as evidence of diligence when approaching state, federal, or national funders.

Do corporate foundations and corporate giving programs fund the same things?

Not necessarily. A corporate foundation is bound by private foundation rules and generally grants to qualified charities. A corporate giving program can fund activity a foundation cannot reach easily, including sponsorships, non-charitable community entities, and in-kind product donation. Asking which budget you are being considered against changes the ask.

How do you find out who funds organizations like yours?

Public filings are the starting point. Form 990-PF itemizes every grant a private foundation made, including recipient, amount, and purpose, and Form 990 shows a public charity’s grants. Federal awards are published in government spending data. Reading the funders of three peer organizations is faster than searching by keyword.

Related topics

• Grant Funding Fundamentals — the hub for how the funding system is structured
• What Is a Grant? — the legal and economic definition
• Types of Grants Explained — the instrument taxonomy
• Foundation Grants — how foundation funding behaves in practice

Sources

1. Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Giving USA: U.S. charitable giving rose to $617.20 billion in 2025. https://philanthropy.indianapolis.iu.edu/news-events/news/_news/2026/giving-usa-report-2026.html (accessed 2026-08-11)
2. Congressional Research Service. Federal Grants to State and Local Governments: A Historical Perspective on Contemporary Issues, R40638, June 26, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R40638/R40638.35.pdf (accessed 2026-08-11)
3. Grants.gov. Grant-Making Agencies. https://www.grants.gov/learn-grants/grant-making-agencies (accessed 2026-08-11)
4. Council on Foundations. Foundation Basics. https://cof.org/content/foundation-basics (accessed 2026-08-11)
5. Internal Revenue Service. SOI Tax Stats — Private Foundations Study Terms and Concepts. https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-private-foundations-study-terms-and-concepts (accessed 2026-08-11)
6. Internal Revenue Service. Taxes on failure to distribute income — private foundations. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/taxes-on-failure-to-distribute-income-private-foundations (accessed 2026-08-11)
7. DAF Research Collaborative. Annual DAF Report 2025 (FY2024 data). https://www.dafresearchcollaborative.org/annual-daf-report/2025 (accessed 2026-08-11)
8. Council on Foundations. CF Insights survey results. https://cof.org/cfinsights/results (accessed 2026-08-11)
9. CECP. Giving in Numbers: 2024 Edition. https://cecp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Giving-in-Numbers-2024.pdf (accessed 2026-08-11)
10. Candid. Organizations in the U.S. social sector. https://candid.org/impact-insights/us-social-sector/organizations/ (accessed 2026-08-11)