Grants Paid by Private Foundations (U.S., Annual)

## What this measures

Contributions, gifts and grants paid during the tax year (Form 990-PF Part I, line 25, column a), summed over every private foundation. 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

This is how much private foundations give away. It moves with their assets, the 5% payout rule and big one-off gifts.

## How to read it

The series starts in tax year 2020 at $94.9 billion. The latest reading, for tax year 2024, is $128.0 billion. The high is $128.0 billion (tax year 2024) and the low $94.9 billion (tax year 2020).

## What it does not say

Grants between foundations, and to donor-advised funds, count at each step, so the total double-counts money passed along. It is the accounting-basis figure from Part I, not cash out the door.

## 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.