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Browse helpful resources for funders, including evidence-based reports, profiles of funders making change, case studies, and blog series.

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State of Nonprofits 2024: What Funders Need to Know
State of Nonprofits 2024: What Funders Need to Know

In the four years since the COVID-19 pandemic began and movements for racial justice gained widespread public attention, nonprofits across the United States have demonstrated their pivotal role in meeting their communities’ needs and advocating for those they serve. Individual and institutional funders, too, have responded to calls for change. Given the vital role nonprofits play in communities across the U.S., we sought to understand how they are faring now and to shed new light on their experiences with funders.

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Funding Nonprofit Endowments: Foundation Perspectives and Practices
Funding Nonprofit Endowments: Foundation Perspectives and Practices

​​Traditionally, endowment funding has been directed to wealthy and well-established nonprofit institutions. In recent years, the conversation about endowments as an equity approach has received more attention in philanthropy. Little is currently known about the degree to which foundations are funding nonprofit endowments.

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Emerging Impacts: The Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Large, Unrestricted Gifts
Emerging Impacts: The Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Large, Unrestricted Gifts

In just three years, MacKenzie Scott gave more than $14 billion in unrestricted support to more than 1,600 organizations. Her gifts have often come as a surprise to recipients, with no restrictions on how or when they must be used, and with few, if any, reporting requirements. These gifts have been transformational for recipient organizations.

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State of Nonprofits 2023: What Funders Need to Know
State of Nonprofits 2023: What Funders Need to Know

Nonprofits across the United States played a vital role during a period of crisis that began in March 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic and was followed by a nationwide racial justice reckoning that summer. As nonprofits experienced heightened demand coupled with marked uncertainty about revenues, they responded with resiliency and imagination, while many funders also stepped up, increasing philanthropic giving in a time of urgent need. Following this intense period of trial and turmoil, we wanted to take stock of current nonprofit perspectives and understand their evolving experiences with funders.

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Giving Big: The Impact of Large, Unrestricted Gifts on Nonprofits
Giving Big: The Impact of Large, Unrestricted Gifts on Nonprofits

In late July 2020, MacKenzie Scott shocked the philanthropic and nonprofit worlds with the announcement that she had given $1.7 billion to 116 nonprofit organizations. The gifts came in the form of massive, unrestricted grants, with a significant proportion targeted to organizations focused on issues of equity, and were made with no restrictions – only an expectation of an annual three-page letter back to the donor for the three years following their receipt.

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Much Alarm, Less Action: Foundations & Climate Change
Much Alarm, Less Action: Foundations & Climate Change

Despite the urgency of climate change and the narrowing window for action, philanthropic funding to address climate change remains very limited. Total philanthropic giving by foundations and individuals focused on climate change mitigation represents less than two percent of total global philanthropic giving, according to the ClimateWorks Foundation. While there is some evidence of increased momentum in recent years, more action will be needed to match the scale of the climate crisis.

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FOUNDATIONS RESPOND TO CRISIS: Lasting Change?
FOUNDATIONS RESPOND TO CRISIS: Lasting Change?

Calls for changes in foundation practice have come for decades from philanthropic and nonprofit leaders and others in the sector. The ways in which foundations responded to these calls at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 have been well-documented and...

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Persevering Through Crisis: The State of Nonprofits
Persevering Through Crisis: The State of Nonprofits

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread in the United States in 2020, many nonprofit organizations grappled with its devastating impacts on public health and the global economy—and the ways in which it deepened longstanding disparities along racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and...

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Funder Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Funder Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Based on a nationally representative survey of nonprofit leaders in May 2020, Funder Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic sheds light on which organizations face the toughest challenges, what is most needed from funders, and what differences in experience are emerging...

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Policy Influence: What Foundations are Doing and Why
Policy Influence: What Foundations are Doing and Why

Foundations’ engagement in public policy has contributed to advances in society in areas from civil rights to consumer protections to public health. At the same time, and with greater intensity in recent years, the role of philanthropy in influencing policy has been...

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