Private foundation grantmaking grew in 2025, and one large dataset puts a number on it: grant dollars up 15.1% over 2024, an increase of $149.5 million.
Then there is the second number. The count of grants rose 5.3%.
That gap is the story. The same foundations moved a lot more money through only slightly more grants. Most of the increase went into the size of the checks, not the number of them.
Who Is Actually in This Dataset
The figures come from Foundation Source, a firm that handles back-office administration for private foundations, in its 2026 Report on Private Philanthropy. The report went up in late September; the grant-level numbers below were detailed in an Oct. 14 release.
The sample is 1,237 private non-operating foundations holding between $1 million and $1 billion in assets, each active in both 2024 and 2025 and at least two years old. Three caveats.
First, they are the firm's own clients, and foundations that pay for outside administration are not a random sample. Second, requiring every foundation to be active in both years and at least two years old builds a constant panel, so the growth rate describes continuing foundations only, not the universe. Third, the $1 billion ceiling is unrepresentative: $5.7 billion across 1,237 foundations averages about $4.6 million each, so this is overwhelmingly a small-foundation dataset.
The methodology is stronger than most sector surveys in one respect. Foundation Source says it does not custody or manage the assets, and that its figures come from the grants and expenses it paid, the tax returns it prepared, and investment data from each foundation's financial institution. That is an administrative record rather than a self-report.
The Dollar Growth Came From the Big End
The foundations in the set made 40,210 grants totaling $1.14 billion in 2025, against $990.5 million the year before. Divide dollars by grants and the average award moves from about $25,900 to about $28,350. That is our arithmetic: the release publishes 2025's grant count but not 2024's, which we derived from the reported 5.3% increase.
The release is explicit about where the dollars came from. Grant dollars at the larger foundations in the sample rose 22.6%. Assets finished 2025 at $5.7 billion, up from $5.1 billion, which the release calls approximately 11% growth. The release does not define its larger band, so that 22.6% sits in a category you cannot pin down.
A 15% rise in dollars is not 15% more funded organizations. If you are a first-time applicant, the number that moved least is the 5.3%, and our piece on grants for new nonprofits covers what that means.
What the 7.1% Payout Figure Does and Does Not Say
The release says the foundations distributed an average of 7.1% of assets in both years, and that the $1 million to $10 million band distributed 9.9% in both years. Read those carefully, because they cannot be reproduced from the release's own totals. $1.14 billion of grants against $5.7 billion of assets is about a fifth, not 7.1%. The release does not say how it is computed.
The underlying rule is narrower than a flat 5% of assets, and it does not reach private operating foundations at all. The minimum investment return is 5% of the fair market value of assets a foundation does not hold for exempt purposes, less the debt it took on to buy them. The distributable amount is that figure reduced by the foundation's own excise and income taxes, then adjusted upward for recoveries and unspent set-asides. What counts toward satisfying it is broader than grants: the charitable share of reasonable administrative expenses, purchases of assets used directly in charitable work, project set-asides, and program-related investments. Grants to organizations the foundation or its disqualified persons control, and to other private non-operating foundations, generally do not count. A foundation has until the end of the following tax year to distribute a given year's amount, excess distributions carry forward five years, and failure to distribute draws a 30% tax plus 100% more if the shortfall is not fixed within 90 days of IRS notice.
Two things follow. The release reports the same rates in both years, which argues against a one-off, but a high payout year can still be set-asides and carryforward rather than cash out the door. And a small foundation with largely fixed administrative costs, which count toward payout, will show a higher percentage than a large one without being more generous. We worked through the gap between payout rates and grantee access in the payout debate.
Where the Unrestricted Money Sits
This finding does not depend on the growth arithmetic. About 60% of grants went to a designated program or initiative and 40% provided general operating support. At the larger foundations, 70% were tied to a designated purpose. The smaller foundations split their giving almost evenly.
If what your organization needs is money that pays salaries and rent, that is a concrete reason to weight your prospect list toward the small end. Our piece on restricted versus unrestricted funds covers how to ask for it without sounding like you are hiding something.
Among identified charitable categories, education took the largest share of grant dollars at 19.0%, public and societal benefit 16.5%, human services 13.7%. Health gained the most ground, up 2.6 points to 10.2%. Human services drew 7,785 grants, more than any other identified category, which fits a pattern of smaller awards spread across more grants.
What To Do With This
Weight your prospect research toward small foundations, on the operating-support split rather than the payout rate.
Before you write anything, read the funder's own Form 990-PF. It shows who a foundation funded, what it paid them, and whether it says it accepts unsolicited requests. We walk through reading a 990-PF in a companion piece.
Then size your ask to the median grant in that return, not the average. Averages are pulled upward by outlier awards and the public figures include no median, so compute your own from the funder's grant list. The process for finding grants is unchanged.
The Takeaway
Grant dollars grew 15.1% here while the grant count grew 5.3%, so the growth was concentrated in bigger checks from bigger foundations. Treat the payout percentages with care, because they cannot be reconciled with the release's own totals. The finding you can act on is the operating-support split: the smaller foundations split designated and general operating support almost evenly, while 70% of the larger foundations' grants carried a designated purpose. That is where an unrestricted ask has the best odds.