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Plinth

Glossary

Pass-through

A grant to an organization that regrants it, so the recorded recipient is not the final one.

When a funder grants to a donor-advised fund sponsor, a fiscal sponsor or an intermediary, the filing records that body as the recipient. The money then moves again, and the organization that ultimately does the work never appears in the first funder's return.

This is why totals by cause or by place understate some flows: the recorded destination is an account or an intermediary rather than an operating charity. Where a recipient is a known regranter, the grant is better read as money in transit than as money delivered.

See it in the data

Related terms

Questions and answers

What is a pass-through?
A grant to an organization that regrants it, so the recorded recipient is not the final one. When a funder grants to a donor-advised fund sponsor, a fiscal sponsor or an intermediary, the filing records that body as the recipient. The money then moves again, and the organization that ultimately does the work never appears in the first funder's return.

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