GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

Institute for the Advancement of Food

Washington, DC · EIN 52-1745052. Reported 46 grants totalling $1,544,248 to 21 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

21organizations funded
$25,093median reported grant
$1,544,248granted, 2021-2024
73%of grantees funded again the next year
11%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Institute for the Advancement of Food, the IRS classifies it under science & technology rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE U20Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 21 distinct organizations, with 11% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 73% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $25,093. Half of what it reported fell between $12,500 and $52,295; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $118,825. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
9 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
14 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
9 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
13 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
William & MaryWilliamsburg, VA$170,961332023
Trustees of Tufts CollegeMedford, MA$156,836332024
The Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisUrbana, IL$140,466332023
Johns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, MD$132,410222022
Iowa State UniversityAmes, IA$127,536442024
Trustees of Boston UniversityBoston, MA$107,303332024
University of Massachusetts - AmherstHadley, MA$104,688222024
Florida State University Research Foundation IncTallahassee, FL$98,369222022
Michigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI$80,000332024
National Institute of Standards and Technology (government Agency)Gaithersburg, MD$69,662112022
National Opinion Research CenterChicago, IL$68,199112024
University of ArkansasFayetteville, AR$52,475332024
Regents of the University of ColoradoDenver, CO$45,000332023
University of ChicagoChicago, IL$38,700112022
North Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, NC$36,500222022
Cornell UniversityIthaca, NY$35,000442024
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics FoundationChicago, IL$26,336112022
Mayo ClinicRochester, MN$24,977112021
University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, MN$13,000222024
American Society for Nutrition IncRockville, MD$8,000112022
University of MarylandCollege Park, MD$7,830112022

14 of 21 (67%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 12 of 21 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Education
8 orgs
Health Care
2 orgs
Social Science
1 org
Food & Nutrition
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202110$527,908$45,717
202216$398,956$18,875
202311$279,882$20,000
20249$337,502$45,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

24% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Massachusetts
$369K
Illinois
$274K
Maryland
$218K
Virginia
$171K
Iowa
$128K
Florida
$98K
Michigan
$80K
Arkansas
$52K

Down to the city

Williamsburg, VA
$171K
Medford, MA
$157K
Urbana, IL
$140K
Chicago, IL
$133K
Baltimore, MD
$132K
Ames, IA
$128K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund5 shared recipientsAmerican Chemical Society5 shared recipientsJohns Hopkins University5 shared recipientsNational Collegiate Athletic Association4 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc4 shared recipientsTulsa Community Foundation4 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $25,093 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in IllinoisEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Institute for the Advancement of Food's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 9 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 740 15TH Street Nw 600, Washington, DC, 20005.

EIN 52-1745052 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.