If a nonprofit gets a grant, how likely is it to get one again next year?

About 66% of US grant relationships continue into the next year. Of those, 45% hold steady, 25% shrink and 30% grow. 34% are not renewed. Based on IRS filings for fiscal years 2020–2023.

How long do funding relationships last?

Of the funder–nonprofit relationships funded in 2020, 54% were still funded 3 years later, in 2023. More than half of relationships persist over a three-year window.

Report · Grant renewal

The year after a grant

When a US funder backs a nonprofit, the nonprofit receives another grant the next year 66% of the time. Of the relationships that continue, most hold steady, with a slight tilt toward shrinking rather than growing. 34% are not renewed at all. Pooled across 2020–2023.

Out of every 100 grants

What the same funder did for the same nonprofit the following year.

20% grew30% stayed the same16% shrank34% dropped (nothing)

How long relationships last

Of the funder–nonprofit relationships live in 2020, the share still funded in each later year. 54% were still funded 3 years later — more than half endure across the window.

Bigger grants are stickier

Renewal rate the next year, by the size of the original grant. The largest commitments come back most.

< $10k67%

$10–50k61%

$50–250k71%

$250k+77%

Renewal varies by cause

The causes whose grants come back most, and least, the following year.

Renews most: Religion71%Animals71%Education70%
Renews least: Food/Ag63%Civil Rights61%Community Dev61%

More from the funding graph

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

Strange bedfellows

the named clusters of US funding

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

State money flows

the interactive map of money crossing state lines

Based on 5,158,839 year-over-year grant relationships from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML. Only the fiscal years with complete filing coverage are used (2020–2023: 2020->2021, 2021->2022, 2022->2023), because filings lag twelve to twenty-four months and a transition into a half-reported year would read as a false drop — which is why this window is narrower than the full FY2017–2025 span shown elsewhere on the site. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.