By the Numbers
A separately identified charitable fund or account that is maintained by a non-profit organization and disbursed at the recommendation of the original funder.
What is a donor-advised fund?
Donations from foundations or government agencies to non-profit organizations (and sometimes individuals) for charitable purposes.
What are grants?
Donations to non-profit organizations that are limited to specific uses (e.g. to conduct a particular program or pay for a specific set of costs).
What are restricted grants?
A broad range of activities that non-profits, foundations, and other actors can use to influence public debate and policy decisions.
What is advocacy?
Financial support provided by a grantmaker to a non-profit organization beyond a single year.
What is multi-year funding?
A multi-year donation to a non-profit organization that decreases in value each year.
What is a step-down grant?
A way for funders to understand how their efforts fit within a wider field of activity by looking at the field as a whole to see where the opportunities, needs, and gaps are.
What is a landscape scan?
Another term for unrestricted funding, or donations to non-profit organizations that the organizations themselves may choose how to spend.
What is general operating support?
A donation to a non-profit organization to be used for building construction or building/land acquisition.
What is a capital gift?
A foundation that has declared its intention to give away most or all of its resources within a defined timeframe, generally in an attempt to use its full resources to tackle near-term challenges.
What is a spend-down foundation?
The number of 501(c)(3) organizations in the United States (plus or minus 10%).
What is 1.3 million?
Non-profit organizations that are typically funded by a single individual, family, or business.
What are private foundations?
A type of funding designed to enhance non-profit organizations’ ability to do their work effectively by providing them critical tools, resources, or knowledge.
What is capacity-building support?
Market-rate investments that support the mission of a foundation by generating a positive social or environmental impact, while generating reasonably competitive rates of financial return.
What are mission-related investments (MRIs)?
An approach to giving where donors seek to achieve clearly defined goals; where they and their grantees pursue evidence-based strategies for achieving those goals; and where both parties monitor progress toward outcomes and assess their success in achieving them in order to make appropriate course corrections.
What is Strategic Philanthropy?
Total charitable giving by individuals, corporations, and foundations in 2017 (plus or minus 10%).
What is $410 billion?
A philanthropic vehicle formed when individuals come together and pool their dollars, decide together where to give the money, and learn together about their community and philanthropy.
What is a giving circle?
Bequests or gifts intended to be kept permanently and invested to provide income for continued support of a non-profit organization.
What are endowments?
An approach to giving where donors use evidence and analysis to take actions that help others as much as possible.
What is Effective Altruism?