New York · Nonprofit
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC (New York) receives grants from 350 organizations whose IRS filings report $161,017,599 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($21,232,534). 250 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $99M
- Funders on record
- 350
- Grants received
- $161M
- Net assets
- $755M
What Council on Foreign Relations Inc does
Mission
The council on foreign relations (cfr) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and (continued on schedule o)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The david rockefeller studies program: cfr's think tank analyzes pressing global challenges and offers actionable steps that policymakers and citizens can take to address them. The more than seventy full-time and adjunct fellows in studies cover all the world's major regions and significant foreign policy issues. In addition to producing books, articles, op-eds, blogs, podcasts, and interactives, the studies program administers eleven fellowship programs. Cfr strives to maintain robust diversity of viewpoints among its scholars and fellows. Cfr takes no institutional positions on matters of public policy.
$35,382,000 spentof which $2,066,458 as grants46% of program spendingFor over 100 years, foreign affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of american foreign policy and global affairs. It is now a multiplatform media organization with a print magazine, a website, a mobile site, a podcast, apps and social media feeds. Throughout its history, foreign affairs has stayed true to its mission published in the first issue of the magazine in 1922: "foreign affairs will deal with questions of international interest today. They will cover a broad range of subjects, not only political but historical and economic. In pursuance of its ideals foreign affairs will not devote itself to the support of any one cause, however worthy. Like the council on foreign relations from which it has sprung it will tolerate wide differences of opinion. (continued on schedule o) its articles will not represent any consensus of beliefs. What is demanded of them is that they shall be competent and well informed, representing honest opinions seriously held and convincingly expressed."
$13,733,100 spent$12,419,100 earned by the program18% of program spendingProduct, design, and engineering (pde) designs, develops, and maintains products that serve the council's mission to impart a better understanding of the world among its members and other interested citizens. We collaborate with departments across the council to set and execute the digital vision for cfr.org, as well as a member services portal. We are committed to user-centricity in our approach, iteration in our implementation, and stability in our sites and services. Cfr.org continues to be a leading source of timely analysis on critical foreign policy issues. The website's most popular products include include the global conflict tracker (gct), an nteractive dashboard created and maintained by the center for preventive action, which tracks and analyzes armed conflicts (continued on schedule o) around the world in real time, and cfr backgrounders, which provide authoritative, accessible, and regularly updated primers on hundreds of foreign policy topics.
$11,966,700 spent15% of program spendingAll other programmatic activitiescfr's website, cfr.org, is one of the organization's primary communications channels to its various audiences. The site publishes a rich variety of types of content, including the daily news analysis, backgrounders, interviews, podcasts, opinion pieces, full text of publications from the think tank, resources in support of the various outreach initiatives, videos and transcripts of on-the-record meetings and seminars and more. The site also provides a comprehensive account of the history and activities of cfr in new york and at its washington d.c. Office. The stephen m. Kellen term member program encourages promising young leaders in government, media, nongovernmental organizations, law, business, finance, and academia to engage in a sustained conversation on international affairs and u.s. Foreign policy. The program allows these younger members to interact with seasoned foreign-policy experts and participate in a wide variety of events designed especially for them. Each year a new class of term members, between the ages of 30 and 36, is elected to a five-year membership term. The council on foreign relations sponsors independent task forces to…
$16,477,300 spent$11,942,240 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $77,559,100.
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 2020 to 2021, from $624M to $733M (+17%).
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.
55% of COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 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.
Board chair
David M Rubenstein
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 94 funders to 163 funders, grant income rose $10M → $24M.
29 of 350 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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: $18M from 15 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Silicon Valley Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC raised.
From the IRS filings of COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 350 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
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
35% 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 COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 16% · 2018 26% · 2019 17% · 2020 19% · 2021 14% · 2022 14% · 2023 25% — growing more concentrated.
“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
50% of COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC'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
76% of COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $56M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 190 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 190 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC: 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 COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC?
- COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC (New York) receives grants from 350 organizations whose IRS filings report $161,017,599 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($21,232,534). 250 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC have?
- IRS filings report 350 organizations giving $161,017,599 in grants to COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC, 250 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $21,232,534 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Council on Foreign Relations →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 350 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