Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
CATO INSTITUTE
CATO INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 603 organizations whose IRS filings report $188,812,818 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($58,814,127). 428 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2026
- $69M
- Funders on record
- 603
- Grants received
- $189M
- Net assets
- $210M
What Cato Institute does
Mission
The mission of the Cato Institute is to keep the principles, ideas, and moral case for liberty alive for future generations, while moving public policy in the direction of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990.
Programs
Public policy & research - our vision is a free and open society in which liberty allows every individual to pursue a life of prosperity and meaning in peace. To that end, our scholars and analysts conduct and publish independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues across more than 14 research areas, including law and civil liberties, tax and budget policy, regulatory studies, health care and welfare, education, finance, banking and monetary policy, foreign policy and national security, trade policy, and international development.
$24,773,747 spentof which $86,000 as grants$26,672 earned by the program61% of program spendingEducational programs - cato hosts public events and conferences in order to engage diverse audiences on our research and policy prescriptions. Cato also proactively invests in the next generation through its student programs. These include our cato internship program and john russell paslaqua intern seminar series, our student briefing program, cato courses, and cato university, which teaches college students from around the country about america's founding principles of individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise. Our sphere program supports middle and high school educators with the knowledge and tools to overcome polarization and advance civil discourse on contentious issues in the classroom.
$10,249,871 spentof which $30,000 as grants$285,254 earned by the program25% of program spendingCommunications & external affairs - cato scholars engage and educate broad audiences on our policy prescriptions by disseminating our research through speaking engagements, social media, briefings, op-eds and blogs, podcasts, television and radio appearances, and our websites, which receive over 14.7 million visits annually. We have invested significantly in building a cato digital program to showcase this content in a dynamic, engaging, and accessible way through all these channels. Cato scholars and government affairs personnel meet with and educate government officials and their staff on a variety of public policy issues, advancing solutions based on the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Cato hosts a quarterly congressional fellowship program geared to share our research and foster greater engagement on major public policy issues. Scholars regularly offer congressional testimony related to their fields of research.
$5,747,997 spentof which $20,000 as grants14% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2026 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $40,771,615.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $135M to $172M (+28%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
80% of CATO INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 10 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Peter Goettler
President and CEO
Board chair
James M Lapeyre Jr
Director, chairman, executive officer
As listed on its FY2026 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 191 funders to 240 funders, grant income rose $9.3M → $35M.
59 of 603 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $2.6M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest The Donald and Paula Smith Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money CATO INSTITUTE raised.
From the IRS filings of CATO INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 603 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
CATO INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
62% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund CATO INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 58% · 2019 25% · 2020 22% · 2021 32% · 2022 30% · 2023 29% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
48% of CATO INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
55% of CATO INSTITUTE's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $85M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 44 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $104M arriving through sponsors registered in 27 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
CATO INSTITUTE's revenue grew 88% between 2017 and 2026.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 274 public benefit nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2026
Government funding CATO INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $400 on record.
- DIRECT STATE SERVICES - NON-SALARY$400
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CATO INSTITUTE
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 39 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CATO INSTITUTE: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CATO INSTITUTE?
- CATO INSTITUTE (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 603 organizations whose IRS filings report $188,812,818 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($58,814,127). 428 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CATO INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 603 organizations giving $188,812,818 in grants to CATO INSTITUTE, 428 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CATO INSTITUTE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $58,814,127 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CATO INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2026 (financials across 2017–2026), and the filings of 603 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing