How do I find funders for a grassroots religion nonprofit?

Start with the funders most focused on grassroots religion organizations, currently Daughters of Miriam Center, Dancing Deer Foundation, Andrew Wommack Ministries 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 religion organizations?

$4.3B reached 21,541 grassroots religion organizations from 16,365 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 · Religion · grassroots

Who funds grassroots religion organizations

The funders that back grassroots religion organizations are specialists, not generalists: Daughters of Miriam Center gives them 191.8× 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 religion nonprofit's time.

$4.3B

granted

21,541

organizations

16,365

funders

The short version

16,365 funders gave $4.3B to 21,541 grassroots religion organizations (grassroots (under $1M)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is Daughters of Miriam Center, giving 191.8× the national rate to grassroots religion organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is Lilly Endowment Inc, at $94M.
The grassroots religion organization drawing the most is Catholic Revival Initiative Inc, at $37M.

Funders most focused on grassroots religion 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.

Daughters of Miriam Center191.8×$23M · 100% of its giving Dancing Deer Foundation181.6×$16M · 100% of its giving Andrew Wommack Ministries Inc171.3×$15M · 94% of its giving Ejewel Foundation158.9×$8M · 100% of its giving American Friends of Yeshiva Dmir Inc155×$8M · 98% of its giving Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation154.4×$7M · 100% of its giving Christian Global Network Foundation152.1×$7M · 100% of its giving Mikvah USA Inc148.8×$8M · 95% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

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

1Lilly Endowment Inc$94M 2Woodlawn Foundation$43M 3University of Notre Dame du Lac$37M 4Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life$31M 5The Ojc Fund$28M 6Morasha Olami Inc$25M 7Daughters of Miriam Center$23M 8Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis$22M

Grassroots religion organizations that draw the most

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

21,531 other grassroots religion organizations$4.1B

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a grassroots religion nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on grassroots religion organizations, currently Daughters of Miriam Center, Dancing Deer Foundation, Andrew Wommack Ministries 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 religion organizations?: $4.3B reached 21,541 grassroots religion organizations from 16,365 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 camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

State money flows

the interactive map of money crossing state lines

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.