Private foundations
The IRS recognizes 136,500 private foundations — endowed organizations that mostly give money away rather than raise it. 125,490 of them have a return on record, 125,263 of those a Form 990-PF, and every money figure below is about those 125,490.
What they are and what they hold
- 136,500
- Private foundations
- By foundation code or 990-PF filing requirement, across the whole Business Master File.
- 125,490
- With a return on record
- Recognized as a foundation, with any Form 990 series return. Every money figure below is about these.
- 125,263
- With a Form 990-PF
- Of those, the ones whose most recent return is the private foundation form.
- 9,573
- Operating foundations
- They run their own programs rather than only granting.
- 121,231
- Non-operating foundations
- The grantmaking kind.
- $1.6 trillion
- Assets, book value
- $1,646,970,705,908
- What they paid for what they hold. Rankings use this.
- $1.9 trillion
- Assets, fair market value
- $1,888,402,683,797
- What those holdings are worth now.
- $134.3 billion
- Grants paid
- $134,328,190,310
- Summed across filings, each for a different year.
Taken from the IRS on October 14, 2026. Every figure is from the most recent Form 990-PF each foundation filed, and those are different years.
Largest by grants paid
Full ranking2 more columns on a wider screen
| Rank | Foundation | Grants paid |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Gates Foundation Trust | $8.1 billion$8,096,000,000 |
| 7 | Gates Foundation | $5.9 billion$5,856,756,578 |
| 10 | Sanofi-Aventis Patient Assistance Foundation | $4.1 billion$4,149,829,881 |
| 11 | Lilly Endowment Inc | $3.9 billion$3,864,431,404 |
| 12 | Genentech Patient Foundation | $3.5 billion$3,513,726,500 |
| 16 | Novartis Patient Assistance Foundation | $3.1 billion$3,097,009,871 |
| 19 | Bristol-Myers Squibb Patient Assistance Foundation Inc | $2.7 billion$2,658,494,866 |
| 23 | The Wellcome Trust | $2.0 billion$2,032,579,851 |
| 25 | Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation Inc | $2.0 billion$1,988,478,993 |
| 27 | Merck Patient Assistance Program Inc | $1.9 billion$1,911,974,863 |
Where they are
2 more columns on a wider screen
| Rank | State | Foundations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 13,638 |
| 2 | New York | 12,418 |
| 3 | Texas | 11,891 |
| 4 | Florida | 10,262 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | 7,839 |
| 6 | Illinois | 6,320 |
| 7 | Ohio | 5,074 |
| 8 | Missouri | 4,726 |
| 9 | New Jersey | 4,356 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | 4,252 |
| 11 | Michigan | 3,071 |
| 12 | Georgia | 2,972 |
| 13 | Delaware | 2,955 |
| 14 | Virginia | 2,810 |
| 15 | North Carolina | 2,631 |
What this cannot show
- A foundation’s state is its address of record. Many are administered by a bank or law firm in a different state from where the money came or goes.
- Grants paid is a total. Who received the money is in each filing and is not published here yet.
- Assets are ranked at book value, because that is the only measure every form reports. A foundation’s own trustees use fair market value, which is shown beside it.
- Foundations must distribute roughly 5% of assets a year. A foundation paying out far more may be spending itself down; far less may mean a timing difference. Neither is visible from one year of filings.
Full method at methodology.
Sources
- Exempt Organizations Business Master File — Internal Revenue Service · Public domain — U.S. Government work · retrieved October 14, 2026
- Form 990 series e-file data
Compiled automatically from Exempt Organizations Business Master File and Form 990 series e-file data by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built
Data retrieved