Donor-advised fund sponsors made $14.1 billion in global grants, a Council on Foundations report finds

Fifty-one of the largest national donor-advised fund sponsors made more than 89,000 grants totaling $14.1 billion for work outside the United States, according to The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations, a report the Council on Foundations released on October 13. It is the first time the series has analyzed these funds. The report, produced with Candid, covers 2020 through 2023, with partial data for 2024.

How donor-advised funds compare

The $14.1 billion equals 27% of the global grant dollars given by the 1,000 largest U.S. foundations, and about 49% if the Gates Foundation is excluded, the council's announcement says. The funds sent 15% of their grant dollars to global causes. Their grants were much smaller: the median global grant was $15,000, compared with $125,000 for the large foundations.

Foundations held steady

Among the largest foundations, global grants were 23.1% to 24.6% of all grant dollars each year from 2020 to 2023, and about four in five made at least one global grant a year. Giving is concentrated. The top 10 foundations gave 64% of global grant dollars, and the Gates Foundation alone gave about 45%.

Community foundations doubled their share of global foundation funding, from 4% in 2016-2019 to 8% in 2020-2023, passing corporate foundations. Most of that money, 74%, went to U.S.-based groups working abroad, and 90% of community foundations' overall grant dollars still went to domestic purposes.

More unrestricted and direct money

The share of global grants that were unrestricted rose from 19% to 29%, the council says. Grants made directly to organizations based in other countries rose to $7.3 billion from $4.2 billion in the previous period. Climate funding reached $4.3 billion in 2020-2023, up from $1.8 billion in 2016-2019, and with Gates excluded, environment (21%) passed health (18%) as a share of global grant dollars for the first time.

"This publication demonstrates that American generosity isn't limited by borders," said Kathleen Enright, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, in the announcement.

What U.S. nonprofits can take from it

In our view, the donor-advised fund figures are the news for groups that work internationally. Smaller grants through DAF sponsors now add up to a global funding stream more than a quarter the size of what the largest foundations give. Groups that work abroad may want to make it easy for DAF holders to find and fund them. For the federal rules that govern these accounts, see our story on the IRS's guidance priorities for DAFs. For another cut of Candid's foundation data, see democracy grants as a share of foundation giving.