Foundations Give New Organizations 1/3 of Their Grantee Slots. But Only 1/5 of Their Dollars.
In an , we showed that most foundations fund new nonprofits every year. The median foundation directs about a third of its grantee slots to organizations it had not previously funded.
But openness in grantee count is not the same as openness in dollars.
What we found
We computed grant sizes to new versus retained grantees across more than 10,000 foundations with consecutive IRS 990 and 990-PF filings covering tax years 2021 through 2024. A "new" grantee is defined as an organization that received funding in 2024 but had not been funded by that foundation in any of the three prior tax years (2021–2023). A "retained" grantee was funded in 2024 and in at least one of the three prior years.
The headline numbers:
| Metric | New Grantees | Retained Grantees |
|---|---|---|
| Median grant | $10,500 | $20,000 |
| Average grant | $89,000 | $173,000 |
| Trimmed mean (P95) | $30,000 | $54,000 |
| Trimmed mean (P99) | $51,000 | $87,000 |
New grantees receive about half as much as retained ones. That ratio — roughly 50 to 60 cents on the dollar depending on the metric — holds whether you look at medians, raw averages, or averages with the largest outlier grants removed.
In aggregate, about 37% of grantee slots go to new organizations, but only about 21% of foundation dollars do.
The distribution is heavily skewed
The gap between the median ($10,500) and the average ($89,000) for new grantees tells an important story. Most first grants are modest: the 25th percentile is $5,000 and the 75th is $40,000. But a small number of very large first grants — the 99th percentile is $1.2M — pull the average up dramatically.
For retained grantees, the skew is even more pronounced: the median is $20,000 but the 99th percentile is over $2M.
This means that while the ratio between new and retained grants is stable across every way of measuring it, the absolute dollar figures depend heavily on whether you use medians or means. We report both so readers can interpret the pattern at whatever scale matches their organization.
The pattern is remarkably stable
We stress-tested the new-grantee discount across every dimension we could think of:
| Foundation minimum grantees | Foundations | New avg | Retained avg | Ratio | Slot share | Dollar share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No minimum | 10,865 | $89,000 | $173,000 | 51¢ | 37.5% | 21.4% |
| 2+ grantees | 10,346 | $88,000 | $170,000 | 51¢ | 37.5% | 21.5% |
| 5+ grantees | 8,904 | $85,000 | $163,000 | 52¢ | 37.5% | 21.8% |
| 10+ grantees | 7,287 | $81,000 | $154,000 | 52¢ | 37.3% | 21.7% |
| 20+ grantees | 5,174 | $77,000 | $147,000 | 52¢ | 36.9% | 21.2% |
| 50+ grantees | 2,351 | $76,000 | $146,000 | 52¢ | 36.2% | 20.4% |
The ratio barely moves. Whether a foundation has 2 grantees or 50, new grantees receive about half as much per grant as retained ones, and about one-fifth of total dollars.
Sensitivity: How you define "new" matters less than you'd think
We tested two definitions of "new":
- Year-over-year: not funded in the immediately prior year (2023)
- Multi-year baseline: not funded in any of the three prior years (2021–2023)
The year-over-year definition classifies more grantees as "new" (42.5% slot share vs 37.1%), because some organizations skip a year and return. But the dollar ratio is nearly identical: 49 cents on the dollar for year-over-year versus 51 cents for the multi-year baseline.
The core finding — new grantees receive about half as much — is robust to either definition.
What about grant growth over time?
The cross-sectional data shows that retained grantees receive larger grants. But does a first grant actually grow into a larger one over time?
We tracked the cohort of new grantees from 2022 (organizations funded in 2022 that had not been funded in 2021) through 2023 and 2024:
- 60% were retained in the following year (2023)
- 45% were still funded two years later (2024)
- 39% were retained in both subsequent years
For the ~152,000 pairs retained across all three years, the median grant grew modestly: from $20,000 in year one to $22,870 by year three. About 40% of retained grantees saw their grants increase; about 17% saw their grants at least double.
The honest interpretation: most retained grantees receive roughly the same amount year over year. Grant growth happens, but it is not the dominant pattern. The larger story is retention itself — six in ten new grantees are funded again the following year, and those that stay in the portfolio receive roughly twice the per-grant funding of first-timers.
What this means for development teams
Winning a first grant and growing a foundation relationship are two different capabilities.
A $5K or $10K first grant is a foothold, not an endpoint. It places an organization inside a portfolio where retained grantees receive nearly twice as much per grant. But that growth is not automatic. The data suggests that about 40% of retained relationships see dollar increases over a three-year window, while the majority hold steady.
The real question is not who might fund you once. It is which foundations are likely to deepen the relationship over time. Answering that requires understanding a foundation's giving patterns before you ever submit a proposal.
Data source: SciRise Foundation Intelligence dataset. 10,865 foundations with consecutive IRS 990 and 990-PF filings (2021–2024 tax years). The 2024 analysis year includes over 600,000 grants. Excludes DAFs, fiscal sponsors, pass-through foundations, and other closed funders. "New" is defined as not funded by that foundation in any of the three prior tax years. All figures are rounded.