by Wellons, Richard
A new report examines trends in foundation grantmaking based on grant categories and grant recipient location, finding significant differences in the amount and type of grants received. The report, State of Giving, was put together by grants management software company Fluxx, and analyzes $3.6 billion in grants managed in the Fluxx Grantmaker system given during 2018 to charities, nonprofits and individuals in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The report compares grant trends among the top ten and bottom ten states ranked by grant dollars received. Fluxx found a large disparity in grant amounts between the top ten and bottom ten states, with the top ten receiving 73 percent ($2.6 billion) of grant dollars and the bottom ten receiving only .82 percent ($29 million).
Top and bottom ten recipient states also differed greatly in the focus of the grant funding they received. Among the top ten states, 45 percent of grants were devoted to education, 17 percent to the environment, 13 percent to philanthropy, 9 percent to arts and culture, 7 percent to community improvement, and 2 percent to health care. The bottom ten received 50 percent of its funding allocated to housing and shelter, 9 percent to education, 9 percent to foreign affairs, 8 percent to youth development, 8 percent to health care, 6 percent to arts and culture, and 3 percent to community improvement.
The top ten grant dollar receiving locations (followed by their share of the top ten's total grant dollars) were New York (24 percent), California (21 percent), the District of Columbia (16 percent), Missouri (8 percent), Illinois (7 percent), Michigan (6 percent), Massachusetts (5 percent), Oregon (5 percent), Colorado (4 percent), and Maryland (3 percent). The bottom ten states (in descending order, followed by their share of the bottom ten's total grant dollars) were New Hampshire (15 percent), Hawaii (15 percent), Delaware (15 percent), Idaho (12 percent), South Carolina (10 percent), Wyoming (9 percent); Minnesota (8 percent), Nebraska (8 percent), West Virginia (7 percent), and Puerto Rico (.004 percent).
To learn more, download the report here.