How much did AARP grant in FY2024?

Human Services$245MEducation$30MArts & Culture$18MRecreation & Sports$12MPhilanthropy$11MCommunity Improvement$9.4MCivil Rights$6.5MHealth$6.4MPublic Benefit$5.1MOther$137M

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2018

aarp's aginggreater manchesterage-friendly surveyaging placesenatorial debatesmarshallaarp's age-friendly

2019

lgbtq aanhpimeeting conferenceclemsonquadrennial conventionadvance asianqueer asianlivable health

2020

covid reliefaarp's healthlake streetcovid outreachcovid responseballetcovid emergency

2021

black musiccharretteimmigrationwamestlivable galaart music

2022

strategic prioritymeridiandiplomacyduesprize awardretreatdiplomatic

2023

latin musicrodeofinancial literacyprize awardcesscholarships educationmaui fire

2024

challenge aarp'sdigital connectivitychallenge digitalchallenge housinghousing choiceequity nursingnursing innovations

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 688 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k137 grants · $982k
$10k–50k451 grants · $8.0M
$50k–250k82 grants · $6.8M
$250k+18 grants · $20M

$15,000

Median grant

States reached

$13.1B

Total assets

Largest grants

Older Adults Technology Services$7,400,596
Wish of a Lifetime$3,362,720
Legal Counsel for the Elderly$2,978,685
The Creative Coalition$995,077
United Way Worldwide$819,000
AARP Foundation$514,383
America'S Charities$508,493
Regents of the University of Michigan$440,000
John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts$424,000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology$360,000
Aspen Institute$325,000
US Library of Congress$320,000
The Links Foundation Incorporated$286,500
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation$275,000
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation$257,500

02The need

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY18–24, $15.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12% — the area typically sits at 10%. 96% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge

repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$448M · 658 repeat orgs$32M to everyone else

658 repeat relationships — 334 still active in FY2024, 324 since wound down; 272 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

658

1070

Total granted

$448M

$26M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+51%

+54%

Still filing today

81%

63%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6.2M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Human ServicesCommunity ImprovementArts & CultureEducationHealthPhilanthropyOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

LC
Legal Counsel for the Elderly
7× · 2018–2024 · $82M · revenue +81% · 95% of their budget
OA
Older Adults Technology Services
4× · 2021–2024 · $24M · revenue +453% · 49% of their budget
WO
Wish of a Lifetime
5× · 2020–2024 · $12M · revenue +186% · 85% of their budget

Funded once

NP
National Philanthropic Trustgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $5.0M · revenue +241%
La Collaborative Incgraduated
one grant, 2023 · $170k · revenue +2027%
CC
Central City Productions Inc
one grant, 2019 · $167k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Milwaukee Development Corporation

Regional economic development

Community Improvement

Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Inc

Upgrade & advance the atlanta metro area in population, commerce & finance; effect civic & social improvements; better quality of life in the community; & promote integrity in business.

—

Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and

Advance public policy & job growth strategies to create an environment for businesses to prosper

—

International Citycounty Management

To advance professional local government through leadership, management, innovation, and ethics.

International

Washington Area Community Investment

To increase equity and economic opportunity by investing knowledge, social, and financial capital in low- and moderate-income washington area entrepreneurs.

—

African Development Center

Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota

Human Services

Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing

Visit philadelphia is our name and our mission. as the region's official tourism marketing agency, we build greater philadelphia's image, drive visitation and boost the economy.

Community Improvement

American Gas Association

American gas association (the association) is an advocate for natural gas utility companies and their customers. the association helps natural gas utilities achieve operational excellence in the safe, reliable and efficient delivery of…

—

Pidc Development Management Corporation

Administers and coordinates various development projects for the city and other nfp entities.

Community Improvement

Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation

Create opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and communities.

—

Nextenergy Center

Nextenergy works with innovators to accelerate smarter, cleaner, more accessible communities and cities. nextenergy is a convener, collaborator and service provider accelerating the development and growth of smart grid and smart mobility…

Environment

Minneapolis Downtown Council

To promote the growth and development of the downtown area and its businesses.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Council of Senior Centers and Services and the most unlike its peers is Aleutian Pribilof Islands. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side

Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 30 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

1%25/2,469

the rest of the field

13%

1,354/10,532

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

05the grantee network

1431 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2026.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

527

Early backer (in before they grew)

1380/1431

Grantees still filing

1121/1431

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Human Services$244,986,460Other$154,886,077Education$30,094,151Arts & Culture$17,797,207Recreation & Sports$12,477,856Philanthropy$10,651,322Community Improvement$9,369,406

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a loosely connected circle, clustered around a few shared anchors.

National League of Cities Institute IncDC38.1× affinity46 shared granteesties to 7 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National League of Cities Institute Inc · Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund · AARP Foundation · Fitlot Inc · National Recreation and Park Association · Ncta - the Internet & Television · Ctia - the Wireless Association · American Medical Association · National Council on Aging Inc · Edison Electric Institute Inc · The Recycling Partnership Inc · Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organisation AARP funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

9get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–24

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

05Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: Fitlot Inc.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

insufficient risk

Limited financial data in public filings.

Track record & reputation

low risk

6 years of Form 990 filings, still active.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 462195523 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on Fitlot Inc, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
WatchSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue contracted over the period.
WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 100% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to AARP?

Find your warmest path to AARP through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

More from the funding graph

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

Strange bedfellows

the named clusters of US funding

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