How do I find funders for a grassroots housing nonprofit?

Start with the funders most focused on grassroots housing organizations, currently United Jewish Council of the East Side Inc, Farmhouse Foundation, Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation Inc. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.

What counts as a grassroots organization here?

Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: grassroots (under $1M). Cause is where each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear.

How much grant money goes to grassroots housing organizations?

$2.7B reached 10,059 grassroots housing organizations from 15,495 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.

How recent is this data?

It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Causes · Housing · grassroots

Who funds grassroots housing organizations

The funders that back grassroots housing organizations are specialists, not generalists: United Jewish Council of the East Side Inc gives them 206.9× the national rate, with 100% of its grants going here. These are the small organizations the big-institution funders usually miss, so the funders that show up here are the ones worth a small housing nonprofit's time.

$2.7B

granted

10,059

organizations

15,495

funders

The short version

15,495 funders gave $2.7B to 10,059 grassroots housing organizations (grassroots (under $1M)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is United Jewish Council of the East Side Inc, giving 206.9× the national rate to grassroots housing organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is Habitat for Humanity International Inc, at $46M.
The grassroots housing organization drawing the most is Omaha Shelter for Homeless Trust, at $16M.

Funders most focused on grassroots housing organizations

Not the biggest checks, the most committed: each gives this size and cause an outsized share of its budget against the national rate, shrunk toward that rate so a small specialist needs real volume to rank.

United Jewish Council of the East Side Inc206.9×$10M · 100% of its giving Farmhouse Foundation177.7×$12M · 80% of its giving Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation Inc171×$6M · 91% of its giving Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation170.2×$5M · 100% of its giving Sarah Durham Trust169.5×$5M · 100% of its giving PHF HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FUND COMPANY inc159.5×$4M · 100% of its giving Maurice Walk Fine Arts Foundation151.6×$5M · 87% of its giving Abundant Housing LA Education Fund148.7×$4M · 100% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

Real grantmakers giving the most to grassroots housing organizations (donor-advised and mega-funds excluded).

1Habitat for Humanity International Inc$46M 2Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation$33M 3Rebuilding Together Inc$24M 4Enterprise Community Partners Inc$23M 5United Way of Greater Atlanta Inc$17M 6Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis$13M 7Farmhouse Foundation$12M 8The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc$11M

Grassroots housing organizations that draw the most

Sized by grant dollars received. Pick one to see exactly who funds it.

10,049 other grassroots housing organizations$2.6B

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a grassroots housing nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on grassroots housing organizations, currently United Jewish Council of the East Side Inc, Farmhouse Foundation, Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation Inc. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.
What counts as a grassroots organization here?: Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: grassroots (under $1M). Cause is where each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear.
How much grant money goes to grassroots housing organizations?: $2.7B reached 10,059 grassroots housing organizations from 15,495 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.
How recent is this data?: It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

Size is median total revenue; each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear. Read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML across recent fiscal years, among (c)(3) funders and recipients resolved by EIN, with the regranting layer netted out. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.