Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $160,531,837 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($25,000,000). 56 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $468M
- Funders on record
- 100
- Grants received
- $161M
- Net assets
- $1.1B
What The Pew Charitable Trusts does
Mission
Founded in 1948, The Pew Charitable Trusts uses data to make a difference. Pew addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects that lead to tangible progress. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and invigorate civic life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Improving public policy. We study and promote nonpartisan policy solutions for pressing and emerging problems affecting the American public and the global community.
$240,804,599 spentof which $73,391,529 as grants$59,238 earned by the program70% of program spendingInvigorating civic life. We support national initiatives that encourage civic participation. In our hometown of Philadelphia, we support organizations that create a thriving arts and culture community and institutions that enhance the well-being of the region's neediest citizens.
$61,272,378 spentof which $44,938,237 as grants18% of program spendingInforming the public. We support the information initiatives of Pew Research Center, our Washington, D.C.-based charitable subsidiary. The Center is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan, non-advocacy organization that uses impartial, fact-based public-opinion polling and other research tools to track important issues and trends.
$41,508,179 spentof which $41,508,179 as grants12% of program spendingConference center revenue
$0 spent$17,440 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $343,585,156.
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 2021 to 2022, from $1.4B to $1.2B (−12%).
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.
81% of The Pew Charitable Trusts’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (80% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Susan K Urahn
President and CEO
Board chair
Christopher Jones
Director and Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $16M → $21M.
19 of 100 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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: $1.5B from 6 payers (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest The Pew Memorial Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money The Pew Charitable Trusts raised.
From the IRS filings of The Pew Charitable Trusts’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 100 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
The Pew Charitable Trusts has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
36% 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 The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 31% · 2019 37% · 2020 19% · 2021 24% · 2022 15% · 2023 14% — 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
38% of The Pew Charitable Trusts's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
The Pew Charitable Trusts draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 22 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $49M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
The Pew Charitable Trusts's funding base is broadening — from 24 funders to 33 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 62 philanthropy nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding The Pew Charitable Trusts receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $122k on record.
- MD$120k
- NJ$2k
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 The Pew Charitable Trusts
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
19%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 32 states
Part of a family of 9 related entities
- Election Trust Initiative LLC · disregarded
- Pew Research Center · exempt
- The Pew Memorial Trust · exempt
- Mary Anderson Trust · exempt
- J Howard Pew Freedom Trust · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Pew Charitable Trusts: 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 The Pew Charitable Trusts?
- The Pew Charitable Trusts (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $160,531,837 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($25,000,000). 56 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Pew Charitable Trusts have?
- IRS filings report 100 organizations giving $160,531,837 in grants to The Pew Charitable Trusts, 56 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Pew Charitable Trusts?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $25,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Pew Charitable Trusts 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 100 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing