Multi-year funding¹ is essential for nonprofits’ effectiveness, impact and growth. During the last few years, grantmakers have reported significantly fewer grant dollars for multi-year support, and the outlook is uncertain for this vital way in which grantmakers can increase nonprofit effectiveness and capacity.

NCRP examined available annual data on multi-year grants authorized from 2004 to 2010 to assess trends in multi-year grantmaking among more than 1,400 grantmakers and among a matched set of 391 funders. The analysis found that:

• In 2009, reported multi-year grantmaking declined 21 percent to $5.5 billion from its $6.9 billion peak the previous year. Overall grantmaking declined 13 percent. If the nation’s largest grantmaker, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, were excluded from our analysis, reported multi-year grantmaking would have decreased by more than a third.

• Grantmakers have so far reported authorizing $4.7 billion in multi-year grants in 2010, an additional decline from 2009 and well below even 2006 levels of $5.3 billion.²

• Foundations that report multi-year funding provide such grant dollars at consistently substantial, if not exemplary, levels.

• However, each year, only one-tenth of sampled funders on average reported some multi-year grantmaking. Ninety percent of sampled foundations either do not provide multi-year grants or do not report them.

Clearly, multi-year grants are difficult for nonprofits to find and secure, and these important grants are likely to remain scarce for the foreseeable future. Without intentional effort on the part of trustees and staff of grantmaking institutions to begin providing significant

multi-year funding, nonprofit sustainability and impact will continue to be stymied.

The following analysis examines available annual data on multi-year grants authorized from 2004 to 2010. NCRP often uses three-year averages to consider a foundation’s overall commitment to a given practice, but, in this case, three-year averages of 2008-2010 would obscure foundation decisions during those years, prompting us to take a closer look at grantmaking on an annual basis.

THE CASE FOR MULTI-YEAR FUNDINGIn 2009, NCRP’s Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best encouraged grantmakers to invest in the health, growth and effectiveness of their nonprofit partners by providing at least 50 percent of grant dollars as multi-year grants.4 Unencumbered, flexible, long-term funding provides nonprofits with significant benefits such as:

• The ability to respond to crises and opportunities. • Capacity building and leadership development

potential. • The ability to maintain staff continuity and

organizational leadership.• The organizational capacity to overcome

unforeseeable challenges and improve planning.

The State of Multi-Year FundingBy Niki Jagpal and Kevin Laskowski

THE PHILANTHROPIC LANDSCAPE

AT A GLANCE3

$5.5B Total reported multi-year support in 2009

25% Share of grant dollars reported as multi-year support in 2009

4% Average foundation share of giving classified as multi-year support in 2009

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

2

Multi-year grants offer grantees a firm commitment of funding for more than one year. It is distinct from one-year “continuing support grants,” which may be

renewed by the same grantee but require a new applica-tion process each year. Continuing grants are important, but exemplary grantmakers provide multi-year grants.5

The number of grants provided as multi-year support declined 17 percent in 2009. Reports of multi-year grants are up for 2010, but are still below 2006 levels. Because the 2010 dataset is still being finalized, it is possible that the number of multi-year grants might increase.

FIGURE 2. REPORTED MULTI-YEAR GRANTS, 2004-2010

$0

$2 billion

$4 billion

$6 billion

$8 billion

All Grantmakers Gates Foundation

2010200920082007200620052004

Reported multi-year giving peaked in 2008 at $6.9 billion (9,250 grants) and now stands at $4.7 billion (7,835 grants). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave away as much as the next six largest foundations combined in 20096 and has a substantial commitment to multi-year giving. It accounted for nearly 6 percent of grants and nearly half (44 percent) of reported multi-year grant dollars from 2004-2010.

MULTI-YEAR GRANTMAKING FROM 2004-2010 FIGURE 1. REPORTED MULTI-YEAR GRANT DOLLARS, 2004-2010

The majority of the Gates Foundation’s grant dollars go to international causes. According to the foundation’s most recent annual report, Global Development and Global Health comprised $2.6 billion (82 percent of total grants paid) compared to $487 million (15 percent of total grants paid) for U.S. program areas.7 This suggests that the availability of multi-year grants for domestic U.S.-focused activities may be far less than it may appear.

On average from 2004-2010, only one-tenth of all sampled funders reported some multi-year grantmaking; of those that did, an average of 41 percent of them reported giving at least half of their grant dollars as multi-year grants.

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

All Grantmakers Gates Foundation

2010200920082007200620052004

3The Philanthropic Landscape: The State of Multi-Year Funding (Revised Edition)

0.0%

20.0%

40.0%

60.0%

80.0%

Grants Grant Dollars

2010200920082007200620052004

Reported multi-year giving never comprised more than 28 percent of total grant dollars or 6 percent of grants authorized for the years analyzed.

HOW MUCH MULTI-YEAR FUNDING DO GRANTMAKERS PROVIDE?

FIGURE 3. PERCENTAGE OF GRANTS AND GRANT DOLLARS AS MULTI-YEAR FUNDING ACROSS ALL FOUNDATIONS

Among foundations that do report multi-year giving, though, it has comprised as much as three-quarters (75 percent) of total giving and 29 percent of grants authorized.8

Among those foundations that report multi-year giving, shares of multi-year grant dollars and grants peak in 2007, rather than in 2008 as in the broader sample. With multi-year funds already committed in an uncertain market, it is likely that these funders began authorizing fewer grants starting in late 2008.

0.0%

20.0%

40.0%

60.0%

80.0%

Grants Grant Dollars

2010200920082007200620052004

FIGURE 4. PERCENTAGE OF GRANTS AND GRANT DOLLARS FROM MULTI-YEAR GIVERS

Because the Foundation Center’s grants database samples different foundations every year, the Center compiled a matched set of 391 foundations that appeared in each annual sample from 2004-2010 to test whether or not the trends observed in the full sample held true among a consistent group.

The multi-year giving of this matched set of 391 funders follows the same path as the full sample, peaking in 2008, falling in 2009 to levels below those in 2006.

A DIFFERENT LENS TO ANALYZE MULTI-YEAR GRANTMAKING

$0

$2 billion

$4 billion

$6 billion

$8 billion

All Grantmakers Gates Foundation

2010200920082007200620052004

FIGURE 5. REPORTED MULTI-YEAR GRANT DOLLARS, 2004-2010, MATCHED SET

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

4

MULTI-YEAR SUPPORTFOUNDATION NAME TYPE¹ STATE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE

William T. Grant Foundation IN NY $13,268,527 99.8%

James S. McDonnell Foundation IN MO $13,647,685 97.2%

Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Inc. IN IN $30,660,000 96.4%

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation FM WA $2,895,910,000 96.1%

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation IN NY $188,164,400 94.6%

Bush Foundation IN MN $43,230,451 94.1%

Lavelle Fund for the Blind, Inc. IN NY $3,587,228 94.1%

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation IN NY $73,084,026 94.0%

TABLE 1. LARGEST FUNDERS BY SHARE OF TOTAL GIVING FOR MULTI-YEAR GRANTS IN 2009

FIGURE 6. REPORTED MULTI-YEAR GRANTS, 2004-2010, MATCHED SET

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

All Grantmakers Gates Foundation

2010200920082007200620052004

The Gates Foundation again comprises 6 percent of multi-year grants made and nearly half (45.2 percent) of the sampled multi-year grant dollars.

Confining the analysis to only known multi-year givers, the shares of total giving and the average percentage given as multi-year grants is consistently higher compared to the field as a whole. While the share of grant dollars given is consistently high among these funders, the share of grants given as multi-year grants is considerably less.

FIGURE 7. SHARES PERCENTAGE OF GRANTS AND GRANT DOLLARS FROM MULTI-YEAR GIVERS 2004-2010, MATCHED SET

0.0%

20.0%

40.0%

60.0%

80.0%Grants Grant Dollars

2010200920082007200620052004

In the matched set of 391 grantmakers, 20 percent of funders reported some multi-year grantmaking; of those that did, two-thirds of them on average reported giving at least half of their grant dollars as multi-year grants. Again, among multi-year funders, shares of grant dollars and grants made as multi-year grants peaked in 2007. These findings suggest that, among those who give multi-year grants, such giving is con-sistently substantial.

LARGEST MULTI-YEAR FUNDERS In 2009, 51 grantmakers (4 percent of the 2009 overall sample) reported authorizing at least 50 percent of their grant dollars as multi-year grants, the level encouraged by NCRP.

5The Philanthropic Landscape: The State of Multi-Year Funding (Revised Edition)

MULTI-YEAR SUPPORTFOUNDATION NAME TYPE¹ STATE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE

The California Wellness Foundation IN CA $44,260,000 93.5%

William Talbott Hillman Foundation IN PA $1,010,000 93.5%

The Educational Foundation of America FM CT $9,384,667 92.7%

Burroughs Wellcome Fund IN NC $20,932,350 89.9%

The James Irvine Foundation IN CA $55,766,000 88.4%

Lumina Foundation for Education, Inc. IN IN $49,465,300 87.6%

Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust IN NC $20,376,219 85.9%

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation IN NY $46,393,907 85.8%

The Wallace Foundation IN NY $25,565,000 85.6%

The McKnight Foundation FM MN $38,084,500 85.3%

Foundation for Child Development IN NY $1,080,097 83.4%

W.K. Kellogg Foundation IN MI $182,692,199 83.4%

Carnegie Corporation of New York IN NY $89,037,020 81.6%

Kansas Health Foundation IN KS $11,368,184 80.2%

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation IN IL $159,732,500 80.0%

Harold Simmons Foundation CS TX $6,170,000 80.0%

W. M. Keck Foundation FM CA $16,850,000 79.9%

MULTI-YEAR SUPPORTFOUNDATION NAME TYPE¹ STATE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation FM WA $2,895,910,000 96.1%

Ford Foundation IN NY $311,737,814 69.5%

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation IN NJ $192,571,877 65.5%

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation IN NY $188,164,400 94.6%

W. K. Kellogg Foundation IN MI $182,692,199 83.4%

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation IN CA $165,166,600 73.2%

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation IN IL $159,732,500 80.0%

The Kresge Foundation IN MI $122,954,629 66.0%

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation FM CA $89,583,593 34.2%

Carnegie Corporation of New York IN NY $89,037,020 81.6%

The Rockefeller Foundation IN NY $88,375,330 67.6%

Doris Duke Charitable Trust IN NY $73,084,026 94.0%

TABLE 2. THE 25 LARGEST MULTI-YEAR FUNDERS BY TOTAL GIVING IN 2009

¹ CS=corporate, FM=family, IN=independent

TABLE 1. LARGEST FUNDERS BY SHARE OF TOTAL GIVING FOR MULTI-YEAR GRANTS IN 2009 (CONTINUED)

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

6

MULTI-YEAR SUPPORTFOUNDATION NAME TYPE¹ STATE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation IN MI $62,504,510 62.4%

The James Irvine Foundation IN CA $55,766,000 88.4%

Lumina Foundation for Education, Inc. IN IN $49,465,300 87.6%

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation IN NY $46,393,907 85.8%

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation IN FL $45,780,547 75.8%

The California Wellness Foundation IN CA $44,260,000 93.5%

Bush Foundation IN MN $43,230,451 94.1%

The McKnight Foundation FM MN $38,084,500 85.3%

The William Penn Foundation FM PA $33,808,116 71.8%

Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Inc. IN IN $30,660,000 96.4%

The Wallace Foundation IN NY $25,565,000 85.6%

Meyer Memorial Trust IN OR $22,118,870 77.4%

Burroughs Wellcome Fund IN NC $20,932,350 89.9%

NCRP worked with the Foundation Center to develop custom datasets using the center’s grants sample database, which includes detailed information on all

grants of $10,000 or more awarded to organizations by more than 1,300 of the largest foundations in the United States. Grants to individuals are not included

TABLE 3. OVERVIEW OF DATA SET

¹ FM=family, IN=independent

TABLE 2. THE 25 LARGEST MULTI-YEAR FUNDERS BY TOTAL GIVING IN 2009 (CONTINUED)

YEAR AUTHORIZED 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 20109

OVE

RALL

SA

MPL

E

Foundations in Set 1,124 1,218 1,399 1,401 1,437 1,312 1,091

Foundations Reporting Multi-Year Commitments (Number)

109 104 122 121 150 141 136

Foundations Reporting Multi-Year Commitments (Percent)

10% 9% 9% 9% 10% 11% 13%

Reported Median Share of Grant Dollars for Multi-Year Giving

0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

MA

TCHE

D SA

MPL

E Foundations in Set 391 391 391 391 391 391 391

Foundations Reporting Multi-Year Commitments (Number)

76 71 73 71 87 89 80

Foundations Reporting Multi-Year Commitments (Percent)

19% 18% 19% 18% 22% 23% 20%

Reported Median Share of Grant Dollars for Multi-Year Giving

0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

METHODOLOGY

7The Philanthropic Landscape: The State of Multi-Year Funding (Revised Edition)

ABOUT NCRPThe National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) aims to ensure that philanthropy contributes in meaningful ways to the creation of a fair, just and equitable world. We promote philanthropy that serves the public good, is responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity, and is held accountable to the highest standards of integrity and openness.

For more information, please contact us at:1331 H Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20005P: 202.387.9177 | F: 202.332.5084 | E-mail: info@ncrp.org www.ncrp.org | blog.ncrp.org

in the file. International grants are included. For community foundations, discretionary grants and donor-advised funds are included. The Center’s grants classification system provides much more detail on current giving trends than other data sources and represents approximately half of the foundation grantmaking in the United States. NCRP examined available annual data on multi-year grants authorized from 2004 to 2010 to observe trends in multi-year grantmaking among more than 1,400 grantmakers and among a matched set of 391 funders.

Figures for multi-year giving are captured only for foundations that provided full authorized grant amounts and grant durations either publicly or directly to the Foundation Center. Foundations noted in the data as giving zero to multi-year support either did not give such grants or did not provide enough information to code them as such. NCRP encourages grantmakers to contact the Foundation Center to ensure appropriate classification of their grants.

For more information, please contact research@ncrp.org.

Niki Jagpal is research and policy director at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

Kevin Laskowski is research and policy associate at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

The authors would like to extend a special thanks

to Steven Lawrence, Director of Research at the Foundation Center, for his review and guidance. NOTES1. Statistics in a previous version of this report misstated levels

of multi-year grantmaking because of a programming error

at the Foundation Center. The mistake prompted a differ-

ent approach that corrects the rec-ord and more accurately

reflects recent trends in multi-year giving. See Niki Jagpal and

Kevin Laskowski, “Errors in “The Philanthropic Landscape,”

Keeping a Close Eye…, September 7, 2012, http://blog.ncrp.

org/2012/09/errors-in-philanthropic-landscape.html.

2. Figures presented for 2010 are based on data available at the

time of this analysis. Because of differences in foundation fis-

cal years and the timing of 990 filings, the Foundation Center

is continuing to collect and process data for grants authorized

in 2010. The percentage of known multi-year funders appears

higher in 2010 because most of the larger multi-year funders

are included in the sample. Once the full set is complete, the

shares of known multi-year funders will likely decrease.

3. Figures from 2009 represent the latest complete dataset.

4. Niki Jagpal, Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks

to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact (Washington, D.C.:

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2009).

5. Ibid.

6. The Foundation Center, “50 Largest Foundations by Total

Giving, 2009,” (New York, N.Y.: The Foundation Center,

2011), http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/statistics/

pdf/11_topfdn_type/2009/top50_tg_all_09.pdf.

7. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Building Better Lives

Together: 2011 Annual Report (2012), http://www.gatesfoun-

dation.org/annualreport/2011/Pages/home-en.aspx.

8. See note 2.

9. See note 2.