Every U.S. private foundation files Form 990-PF with the IRS each year, and every larger public charity files Form 990 or 990-EZ. The IRS publishes the electronically filed returns. Palanor reads them and keeps the numbers that say how much foundations hold, how much they give, and to what.
The signals
- Foundations (Form 990-PF, by tax year): how many private foundations filed, their total assets at market value, grants paid, qualifying distributions, gifts received, the payout ratio (aggregate and median) and the share of foundations paying out under 5%.
- What foundations fund: the share of grant dollars going to health, education, human services and aid, international aid and development, environment and animals, arts and culture, religion, science and research, public and community benefit, and philanthropy (community foundations and donor-advised funds). A climate share counts grants whose purpose or recipient names climate, clean energy, emissions or carbon. The share of grant dollars the rules could place is published too, so you can see coverage.
- Public charities (501(c)(3) organizations filing Form 990 or 990-EZ): how many filed, revenue, expenses, assets and the share of spending that goes to programs. Totals by field (health, education and so on) are kept private for now: about a tenth of charity revenue belongs to organizations the IRS Business Master File no longer lists, too much to split by field reliably.
- AI-written text in mission statements: the share of charities' mission and program text that reads like heavily AI-written text (see AI research output for how the detector works).
A tax year is the year a return's tax period begins. A year is published once the IRS has posted the returns for the two years after it, because foundations on extension file up to 10½ months after their year ends. The series start with tax year 2020, when e-filing became required; earlier years are partly on paper. Tax year 2021 is left out of every series: the IRS's public release for 2022 holds about two-thirds of the returns its own index lists, so roughly 30% of 2021 returns are missing. A year is published only when at least 97% of the returns the IRS index lists for it were read. Foreign foundations that file a 990-PF (the Wellcome Trust, for one) have pages but are left out of U.S. totals.
How grants get a theme
Each grant listed on a 990-PF gets one theme. First, its stated purpose, when the purpose names a field ("cancer research", "scholarships", "food bank"). Most purposes say "general support", so next comes the recipient: when it matches a registered exempt organization in the IRS Business Master File, its activity code (NTEE) decides. Then the recipient's name ("… University", "… Hospital", a donor-advised fund), and a recipient outside the United States counts as international. Anything else stays unclassified. No model is used, and the rules were written down before any total was computed.
The payout ratio
A non-operating private foundation must distribute about 5% of the value of its investment assets each year. Palanor divides qualifying distributions (grants plus the costs of charitable work) by the net value of noncharitable-use assets, both from the return. Foundations can carry excess distributions forward and have a year to correct a shortfall, so one year under 5% is not a violation. Operating foundations, which run their own programs, have no 5% rule and are left out of the ratio.
Foundations in the screener
Choose Foundations in the Entity Screener to list every private foundation by its latest return: assets, grants paid, payout, the theme it gives most to, and its state. Filter by theme, state, asset band, grants, payout or tax year, save the screen, and get an alert when a foundation in it files a new return.
Foundation pages
Click a foundation for its page: assets, grants and payout by tax year, what it funds, its largest recipients that are registered exempt organizations, and the foundations that fund it. Every page links to the IRS record of the foundation and its filed returns.
What Palanor never shows
For private foundations the IRS publishes Schedule B, the list of contributors, with names and addresses. Palanor removes it from every return before reading anything and never stores it. It never stores officers' names or pay. A grant recipient is shown only when it matches a registered exempt organization, and then under its IRS name, so grants to individuals (scholarships, hardship grants) count in totals but never appear by name. Mission text is scored only in aggregate.
How fresh it is
The IRS posts new e-filed returns every month. Palanor re-reads the last three years of posted returns monthly, updates foundation rows and pages, and rewrites the newest tax years. Older tax years stay as published.
Source
IRS Form 990 series e-file data and the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File. Both are U.S. Government works, not subject to copyright. Report errors to support@palanor.com.