Discover How America’s Top 100 Foundations Fund Grants: Key Findings and Tips

I used AI to review America’s top 100 foundations sorted by maximum donation size. I looked at what they fund, where they fund, and how they fund, making many interesting discoveries. Here are my top findings:

✅ A Letter of Inquiry (LOI) is the first step to approaching most of these organizations and can be submitted anytime throughout the year. Few do however accept LOI’s during a scheduled period.

✅ Request for Proposals (RFPs) are another common approach for grant funding. RFP announcements are made on the websites for a limited period.

✅ A few foundations actively seek out grantees and do not have an open application process.

✅ None of them accept unsolicited applications.

✅ Many make grants limited to specific geographic areas within the US.

✅ Trustees meet three or four times a year to consider grant awards.

✅ Education and health are on the list of many, with education being the most funded cause.

✅ The application process is entirely online (no paper applications).

✅ Only a handful of them make international grants.

✅ A few engage in impact investing alongside grants.

We’ll be sharing more insights into America’s funding landscape. Stay tuned. And for a winning Letter of Inquiry (LOI), use Grant Orb’s LOI template to create it in minutes.