Stability in a Transitional Time
As we examine private foundation giving trends in 2024 and 2025, the data in this report offers a valuable benchmark for how foundations are managing their resources and advancing their charitable missions amid a changing philanthropic and economic environment.
Overall, giving and endowment growth remained solid, while grantmaking activity was largely consistent with prior years. This stability is notable given the myriad factors affecting foundations and the nonprofit sector, including changes in public policy, shifting community needs and continued uncertainty for many organizations.
Our analysis of more than 1,200 private foundations shows incremental year-over-year increases in both the number of grants awarded and total dollars deployed, along with several key trends:
/ Foundations exceeded the annual payout requirement by 2.1% on average.
/ Education, Public/Societal Benefit and Human Services remained top priorities, reflecting ongoing support for a broad range of community needs.
/ Foundations continued to prefer targeted philanthropy over granting funds for general operational use.
/ A subset of foundations employed advanced giving strategies to complement and/or deviate from traditional grantmaking.
As the leading provider of philanthropic software and services, we hope this report provides useful perspective and data to inform your work and planning, whether you are a foundation, individual donor, advisor or nonprofit leader.
Thank you for your commitment to philanthropy and for partnering with us to empower communities and effect meaningful change.
Sincerely,
Gillian Howell
Senior Vice President, Client Success
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