5 Myths About Foundation Funding for University Research
Most universities are overlooking a massive source of research funding, and it's hiding in plain sight.
Even after 20+ years in academia, once I studied the foundation landscape, I realized I had been thinking about "foundation funding" too narrowly.
We tend to look for foundations that behave like NIH or NSF: clear RFPs, application windows, deadlines, and a formal submission process. This mental model misses how nonprofit funding often works.
Myth 1: "Foundation funding" just means private foundations
When people say "foundation funding," they usually mean the broader nonprofit funding space. Private foundations are only one slice. Associations, institutes, and mission-focused nonprofits also make substantial grants to universities.
Myth 2: The top 100 "brand-name" foundations are the whole game
We tend to fixate on a short list of national foundations everyone recognizes. Those top names represent only about half of the landscape from a dollar perspective. The other half comes from thousands of smaller and midsize funders that rarely show up in the news but collectively move roughly as much money as the majors.
Myth 3: Most nonprofit dollars come through formal RFPs
The familiar model (public RFPs, online portals, competitive cycles) describes only a minority of nonprofit funders, typically the largest and most visible 10–15 percent. Much of the rest is relationship-based, driven by alignment and trust, and offered on more informal terms rather than highly structured calls for proposals.
Myth 4: Nonprofit "grants" always look like classic sponsored research
In practice, "grantmaking" is used loosely. A meaningful share of nonprofit support arrives as gifts, not as project grants. That means more flexible dollars that can support capacity building, infrastructure, and other strategic priorities that are hard to fund with federal awards.
Myth 5: Nonprofit dollars are a rounding error next to federal funding
Across all causes, grantmaking nonprofits award an estimated $125–150B in grants each year. Universities capture only about 8–9% of that total, roughly $10–13B annually. Federal R&D funding is larger overall, but the nonprofit ecosystem is still a second major pillar in scale. Higher education is tapping only a thin slice of the funding that is available.
The Bottom Line
If we keep treating foundation funding as "NIH but significantly smaller" and limit our attention to a short list of marquee funders, we are not just leaving money on the table. We are also leaving flexible, mission-aligned capital untapped for our own institutions.
If you are an institutional leader or researcher and want to dig into the private nonprofit funding landscape, feel free to . I am happy to share more detail.