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Global giving by U.S. foundations remained consistent as a share of overall giving between 2020 and 2023 with independent and family foundations accounting for most global foundation giving. During the 2020-2023 period with partial data from 2024, these funders led by the Gates Foundation provided close to nine out of 10 globally focused grant dollars.
The largest institutions continued to dominate global giving, with the top 10 foundations providing 64% of global grant dollars. The Gates Foundation continued to be the largest global grantmaker, accounting for approximately 45% of global grant dollars during this period.
That’s some of the data in the new report “The State Of Global Giving By U.S. Foundations,” a project of Candid and the Council on Foundations. The two organizations have partnered on studies of globally focused giving by U.S. foundations for nearly three decades, including Candid’s previous iteration as the Foundation Center.
The State of Global Giving offers insights on how U.S. foundations are thinking about current opportunities for action and the ways their approach might need to evolve in response to a rapidly changing global environment.
Approximately four out of five foundations included in Candid’s Foundation 1000 dataset made at least one globally focused grant each year, indicating a broad commitment to addressing priorities beyond U.S. borders. Since the late 2000s, these funders have awarded approximately 25% of their overall grant dollars and roughly 10% of their number of grants for globally focused activities.
Global giving in grant dollars as a share of overall foundation giving between 2002 and 2023 increased from a low of 13.5% for 2002 to a high of 29.6% during 2011 and settling at 23.8% for 2023, data in the report shows.
Community foundations have nearly doubled the share of overall global foundation funding they provide, from 4% in the 2016-2019 period to 8% in the 2020-2023 period — an increase driven largely by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which accounted for roughly two-thirds of globally focused community foundation grant dollars in the latest period.
However, community foundations are still primarily domestic funders. Even among the community foundations that made at least one global grant, global giving was a small slice of their overall work: On a typical (median) basis, just 2% of their grant dollars and 3% of the total number of grants they made went to global priorities.
Direct global giving in support of locally led development increased, but still represented a small portion of overall global support. Between 2020 and 2023, foundations included in Candid’s Foundation 1000 dataset awarded 14% of their globally focused grant dollars to organizations headquartered in other countries for work taking place exclusively in those countries. This share was up slightly from 13% in the 2016–2019 period. Direct grant dollars rose to $7.3 billion in the 2020– 2023 period, up from $4.2 billion.
The majority of global giving by U.S. foundations still went through U.S.-based nonprofits (54% of global grant dollars and 65% of global grants). Certain types of funders were more likely to support global issues through U.S.-based nonprofits, especially community foundations (74%) and national donor-advised fund (DAF) sponsors (73%).
National DAF sponsors rivaled foundations in global giving. Analyzed in the report for the first time, 51 national charitable gift funds provided more than 89,000 grants totaling $14.1 billion for globally focused activities between 2020 and 2023. This support equaled more than one-quarter (27%) of the total global grant dollars reported by Foundation 1000 funders during this period. Excluding the Gates Foundation, support from these funds was equivalent to about half (49%) of Foundation 1000 global giving.
Approximately 15% of these donor-advised fund sponsors’ total grant dollars and almost 10% of grants between 2020 and 2023 supported global activities, roughly matching the shares reported for the Foundation 1000 excluding the Gates Foundation.
The median global grant size reported was far smaller for the 51 national charitable gift funds ($15,000) than for the Foundation 1000 funders ($125,000). Each grant represents the recommendation of an individual donor, and many DAF accounts are much smaller than private foundation endowments.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the largest target of global giving, though giving through U.S.-based nonprofits drives most global giving. Between 2020 and 2023, the largest shares of global foundation funding focused on the Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and Pacific regions. This includes grants made directly to organizations headquartered in those regions, as well as grants that focused on those regions but going to organizations headquartered elsewhere. The majority of global giving by U.S. foundations goes to recipient organizations headquartered in the United States.
