Wisconsin · Private foundation
The Searle Freedom Trust
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- $19M
- Granted FY2024(still arriving)
- 80
- Grants FY2024
- 75
- Organizations funded FY2023
- 16%
- First-time grantees FY2023
- Median grant, FY2024
- $200,000
- Largest grant, FY2024
- $1,100,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 75 to 82
- FY2020 to FY2023
- States reached, FY2024
- 16
- Total assets, FY2024
- $22M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2023, 16% of the organizations The Searle Freedom Trust funded were first-time grantees, receiving 10% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.9M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024still arriving | 63 | $19M | 13% |
| FY2023 | 75 | $20M | 16% |
| FY2022 | 78 | $24M | 17% |
| FY2021 | 82 | $24M | 20% |
| FY2020 | 81 | $22M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Mason University Foundation Inc | $7,910,000 | 5 | 1% |
| American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | $5,650,000 | 5 | 3% |
| State Policy Network | $5,540,300 | 5 | 6% |
| Foundation for Government Accountability Inc | $4,000,000 | 5 | 7% |
| The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies | $3,660,300 | 5 | 5% |
| The Reason Foundation | $3,524,100 | 5 | 6% |
| Pacific Legal Foundation | $3,050,000 | 5 | 3% |
| Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Inc | $2,900,000 | 5 | 4% |
| Cato Institute | $2,450,000 | 5 | 2% |
| Tax Foundation | $2,400,000 | 5 | 11% |
Show all 111 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 19 recipients with no EIN on record ($4.8M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
The Searle Freedom Trust supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 12 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 107 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Donors Trust Inc · The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc · Bradley Impact Fund Inc · Sarah Scaife Foundation Incorporated · Adolph Coors Foundation · John William Pope Foundation · Charles Koch Foundation · The Seminar Network Inc · The Dunn Foundation · Triad Foundation Inc · Thomas W Smith Foundation Inc · Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Searle Freedom Trust?
Find your warmest path to The Searle Freedom Trust through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
About The Searle Freedom Trust
- How much does The Searle Freedom Trust give?
- The Searle Freedom Trust reported 80 grants totaling $18,866,185 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 75 and 82 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.
- What does The Searle Freedom Trust fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2024, its largest causes are Public Benefit (29%), Education (16%), Civil Rights (15%).
- Who are The Searle Freedom Trust's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2020 to FY2024: George Mason University Foundation Inc ($7.9M), American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research ($5.7M), State Policy Network ($5.5M).
- Does The Searle Freedom Trust fund new organizations?
- In FY2023, 16% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does The Searle Freedom Trust accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as The Searle Freedom Trust?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Donors Trust Inc, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc, Bradley Impact Fund Inc.
- Where is The Searle Freedom Trust based?
- The Searle Freedom Trust is based in WI.
Play a game based on Searle Freedom’s filings →