Private Foundation Assets, Market Value (U.S., Annual)

## What this measures

The sum of every private foundation's assets at fair market value at the end of its tax year (Form 990-PF, item I). A tax year is the year a return's tax period begins; it is published once the IRS has posted the two following years of returns. E-filing became required for tax years from 2020, so the series starts there. Tax year 2021 is left out: the IRS's 2022 e-file release holds about two-thirds of the returns its own index lists, so roughly 30% of 2021 returns are missing from the public data. A year is published only when at least 97% of the returns the IRS index lists for it were read.

## Why it matters

Foundation assets are the endowment that funds grants: payout rules tie each year's giving to them, so they lead grantmaking by a year or two and follow the stock market.

## How to read it

The series starts in tax year 2020 at $1.32 trillion. The latest reading, for tax year 2024, is $1.73 trillion. The high is $1.73 trillion (tax year 2024) and the low $1.32 trillion (tax year 2020).

## What it does not say

Tax years end on different dates, so the total mixes year-ends; market value is as each foundation reports it. Some assets appear twice: the Gates Foundation and the Gates Foundation Trust each report the endowment the trust holds. Foreign foundations that file a 990-PF (the Wellcome Trust, for one) are left out. It is not money committed to grants.

## Source

IRS Form 990 series e-file returns (Form 990-PF), tax years 2020 on, read and totalled by Palanor; one return per foundation per tax year, the latest filed. U.S. Government work, public domain. Source: Internal Revenue Service.