Newsroom · IRS Form 990-PF

Which foundations accept unsolicited grant requests?

Of the 132,217 private foundations that answer Part XV, line 2 of Form 990-PF, 27,280 say they will read a grant request they did not invite, which is 21%. Those that paid at least 5 grants totaling $100K or more in their latest filed year, 2022 or later, are listed here by state, with the deadline, the restrictions, the contact and every grant paid.

Analysis by , Chief Technology Officer at Civly, built from the IRS Form 990-PF electronic filing releases.

27,280
say they accept requests
21%
of foundations that answer
$63.8B
paid by those foundations
$78.9B
paid by preselected-only foundations
9,009
listed here, by state

The national answer

Part XV, line 2 of Form 990-PF asks whether a private foundation gives only to organizations it selects in advance. A foundation that answers no must file where to send a request, the deadline and any limits.

How many accept requests

27,280

foundations answered no to the preselected-only question, out of 132,217 that answered it at all.

104,937

said they give only to organizations they pick themselves, so they do not consider unsolicited requests.

Where the money is

$63.8B

paid out in their latest filed year by the foundations that accept requests, 45% of the two groups combined.

$78.9B

paid by the preselected-only foundations in their latest filed year.

Browse every state

Each state page lists every foundation there that accepts requests and paid at least 5 grants totaling $100K or more in its latest filed year, with the deadline as filed, the size of a typical grant, and how much of the money went to organizations the funder had never backed before.

Alabama94 foundations · $108.9M paid Alaska23 foundations · $32.8M paid Arizona97 foundations · $203.4M paid Arkansas43 foundations · $149.0M paid California619 foundations · $3.2B paid Colorado127 foundations · $549.6M paid Connecticut131 foundations · $280.8M paid Delaware92 foundations · $169.5M paid District of Columbia43 foundations · $115.3M paid Florida520 foundations · $852.0M paid Georgia171 foundations · $753.6M paid Hawaii52 foundations · $45.6M paid Idaho37 foundations · $62.4M paid Illinois409 foundations · $773.6M paid Indiana160 foundations · $4.2B paid Iowa107 foundations · $163.2M paid Kansas111 foundations · $195.0M paid Kentucky64 foundations · $136.7M paid Louisiana63 foundations · $89.6M paid Maine61 foundations · $219.9M paid Maryland147 foundations · $230.6M paid Massachusetts376 foundations · $754.8M paid Michigan239 foundations · $993.7M paid Minnesota199 foundations · $676.6M paid Mississippi24 foundations · $36.4M paid Missouri246 foundations · $396.3M paid Montana45 foundations · $77.2M paid Nebraska84 foundations · $150.7M paid Nevada70 foundations · $59.5M paid New Hampshire54 foundations · $38.5M paid New Jersey226 foundations · $927.9M paid New Mexico37 foundations · $27.6M paid New York675 foundations · $5.1B paid North Carolina163 foundations · $701.6M paid North Dakota18 foundations · $9.9M paid Ohio429 foundations · $692.5M paid Oklahoma123 foundations · $244.7M paid Oregon99 foundations · $229.8M paid Pennsylvania502 foundations · $1.4B paid Puerto Rico7 foundations · $3.9M paid Rhode Island37 foundations · $101.2M paid South Carolina63 foundations · $51.6M paid South Dakota21 foundations · $83.8M paid Tennessee163 foundations · $379.5M paid Texas798 foundations · $2.4B paid U.S. Virgin Islands1 foundation · $321K paid Utah73 foundations · $134.4M paid Vermont31 foundations · $17.8M paid Virginia200 foundations · $372.6M paid Washington150 foundations · $6.7B paid West Virginia73 foundations · $54.3M paid Wisconsin242 foundations · $353.3M paid Wyoming43 foundations · $46.5M paid

How to read this

1

The Form 990-PF question

Part XV, line 2 of Form 990-PF asks a private foundation whether it makes contributions only to preselected charitable organizations. A foundation that answers no has to file the rest of that block: the name and address to send a request to, the form it should take, the submission deadline, and any restriction by geography, charitable field or kind of institution. A no answer is counted as accepting unsolicited requests. The listings use that block and the grant schedule on the same return.

2

Which foundations are listed

A foundation appears when it accepts requests and paid at least 5 grants totaling $100K or more in its latest filed year, and that year is 2022 or later. 9,009 of those 27,280 foundations clear that bar. The rest accept requests but paid less than that or last filed before 2022.

3

Each foundation's latest filed year

Foundations file on their own fiscal calendars, so each row uses that foundation's latest filed year. The newest tax year, 2025, is partial until the IRS finishes releasing returns, so figures for foundations measured on 2025 come from a partial year.

4

Identical repeat grants count once

Grants and application terms come from each foundation's latest IRS 990-PF e-file return. The newest tax year is partial until the IRS finishes releasing it. Grants are de-duplicated on funder, year, recipient and amount, so identical repeat grants count once and totals can run low.

5

First-time recipient share

It measures the share of that year's grant dollars that went to organizations the foundation had never funded before in our records. A high share means the money reached organizations that were new to the funder, which is what an uninvited request is asking it to do. It is blank when we hold only one year of grants for that foundation, because there is nothing to compare against.

6

327 foundations have no state on file

327 of the 9,009 filed no usable state on the return. They count in the national figures above but appear on no state page.

Grants on file, by year

This table counts every grant Civly has parsed from 990-PF grant schedules, including grants from foundations that give only to preselected organizations. The newest year is partial.

Tax yearGrantsPaid
2013115$611K
201489$359K
2015135$1.7M
2016262$7.6M
2017111$1.8M
20184,126$133.4M
2019162,121$8.4B
20201,881,701$95.0B
20211,948,834$105.9B
20221,972,267$115.6B
20231,978,989$122.7B
20241,544,869$125.6B
2025 (partial)651,162$30.2B

Source: IRS Form 990-PF e-file releases (public domain). Analysis: Civly.

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