Mercatus Center Inc
Arlington, VA · EIN 54-1436224. Reported 216 grants totalling $31.2M to 178 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Mercatus Center Inc, the IRS classifies it under social science rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE V22Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 178 distinct organizations, with 17% 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.
- How much its list changes. 20% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $50,000. Half of what it reported fell between $20,000 and $100,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $4,195,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Washington Seattle | Seattle, WA | $5,145,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Kyiv School of Economics | Washington, DC | $2,200,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Yale University | New Haven, CT | $1,950,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| George Mason University | Fairfax, VA | $1,885,663 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University | Stanford, CA | $1,047,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Washington University | St Louis, MO | $1,046,786 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Essential Impact Inc | Concord, CA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Childrens Hospital Corporation | Boston, MA | $900,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Cornell University | Ithaca, NY | $785,226 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Emory University | Atlanta, GA | $630,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | $600,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Scripps Research Institute | La Jolla, CA | $600,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| George Mason University Foundation Inc | Fairfax, VA | $549,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | New York, NY | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Ukraine Defense Fund Inc | Campbell, CA | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of California Berkeley Foundation | Berkeley, CA | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| University of Minnesota Foundation | Minneapolis, MN | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Caribbean Progress Studies Institute Inc | Huntington Beach, CA | $468,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| University of California San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $465,900 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Regents of the University of California at Berkeley | Riverside, CA | $453,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Brown University of Providence | Providence, RI | $320,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| 1DAY Sooner Inc | Claymont, DE | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Rockefeller University | New York, NY | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Trustees of Columbia University | New York, NY | $275,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Mayo Clinic | Rochester, MN | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund | New Orleans, LA | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Regents Univ of California | Los Angeles, CA | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Development Data Lab Inc | Washington, DC | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Regents of the University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Stonier Scholarship Inc | Towson, MD | $142,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Idaho State University | Pocatello, ID | $124,829 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center | Seattle, WA | $122,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Federation of American Scientists | Washington, DC | $120,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | Madison, WI | $120,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, PA | $109,406 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, NC | $108,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | $108,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Aavishkaar USA | Hastings, MN | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Curious Cases Inc | San Francisco, CA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Capitol Court Ventures | Washington, DC | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Drizzle Health LLC | Baltimore, MD | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation Inc | La Crosse, WI | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Gaspard LLC | Sheridan, WY | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Institute for Progress | Washington, DC | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center | New Orleans, LA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Norn Group | Colorado Spgs, CO | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Panorama Global | Seattle, WA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Political Economy Research Center Inc | Bozeman, MT | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Public Health Institute | Oakland, CA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Readtrellis Inc | New York, NY | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Rhodus Inc | New York, NY | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Social Science Research Council | Brooklyn, NY | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Trustees of Dartmouth College | Hanover, NH | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Trustees of Tufts College | Medford, MA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Miami Native Inc | Key Biscayne, FL | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Ukraine Global Scholars Foundation | Boston, MA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Nucleate Bio Inc | Brighton, MA | $98,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Duke University | Durham, NC | $91,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| New York University | New York, NY | $89,449 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Mediators Foundation Inc | Boulder, CO | $85,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Catherine Project Inc | Annapolis, MD | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Council for Christian Colleges and Universities | Washington, DC | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| New Kite Data Labs Inc | Chapel Hill, NC | $80,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Mill Institute | Champaign, IL | $73,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| University of Utah | Salt Lake City, UT | $72,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Rutgers University Foundation | New Brunswick, NJ | $70,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of Kentucky Research Foundation | Lexington, KY | $68,900 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of Kansas Center for Research Inc | Lawrence, KS | $65,466 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Doleac Initiatives | Houston, TX | $65,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Nomos Ai Inc | Riverhead, NY | $65,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Americas Future Foundation | Washington, DC | $64,773 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Airbound | Seattle, WA | $61,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Constructive Dialogue Institute Inc | New York, NY | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Dirac Labs Inc | Wilmington, DE | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Internet Activism Inc | Wilmington, DE | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Neighborly Faith Inc | Raleigh, NC | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of North Texas | Denton, TX | $58,366 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Curious Maverick | Santa Clara, CA | $56,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| International Policy Network | Portland, OR | $54,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Center for Innovative Governance Research | Washington, DC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology | San Diego, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Complyai | Elmhurst, IL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Digital Harbor Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Gelles Inc | Glendale, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism | Washington, DC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Le Sallay & Marabou International Studies Inc | Lafayette, CO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Leverage Research | Albany, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Mass General Brigham Incorporated | Somerville, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Moth Minds Inc | Berkeley, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Speculative Technologies Inc | Claymont, DE | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Seren Labs LLC | Austin, TX | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Teachergimbel | Washington, DC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Institute for Family Studies | Charlottesvle, VA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Vmind Technologies Inc | Birmingham, AL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mmon Co | San Francisco, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Vibecamp LLC | Exton, PA | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Hack Foundation | W Hollywood, CA | $49,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| St Marys College of California | Moraga, CA | $43,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ethical Compass Consulting Dba Compass Ethics | Colorado Springs, CO | $42,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Yes in My Back Yard | Oakland, CA | $42,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | Cambridge, MA | $40,880 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Art of the Rural | Winona, MN | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Melagen Labs Corp | San Francisco, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Radian Placematters Inc | Denver, CO | $39,757 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Suffolk University | Boston, MA | $38,115 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Arizona State University Foundation for a New American University | Tempe, AZ | $38,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Braver Angels Inc | New York, NY | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Research Foundation for the State University of New York | Albany, NY | $32,663 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Center for Building Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $32,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Florida State University Foundation Inc | Tallahassee, FL | $31,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Saint Anselm College | Manchester, NH | $31,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Georgia State University Research Foundation Inc | Atlanta, GA | $30,636 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Equitech Futures LLC | Chicago, IL | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jhana Inc | Dover, DE | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| University of North Carolina at Charlotte | Charlotte, NC | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Wear Organ Inc | The Woodlands, TX | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Faith Action for Community Equity | Honolulu, HI | $28,750 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Iowa State University Foundation | Ames, IA | $27,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Frontier Institute Inc | Helena, MT | $26,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Pause Bio Inc | San Francisco, CA | $25,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| 10 Academy Corp | Santa Clara, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| 500 Startups Incubator LLC | Pleasant Hill, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Airstrip Ai Inc | Middletown, DE | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Beacon Center of Tennessee | Nashville, TN | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Biotein Inc | Wellesley, MA | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Catholic University of America | Washington, DC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Charmaine Lee | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dognosis Inc | Simi Valley, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Housing Virginia Campaign Inc | Richmond, VA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Naijacoder Inc | Champaign, IL | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Saint John Paul II Preparatory School Inc | Saint Charles, MO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Sentience Institute Inc | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Seabird Inc | Portland, OR | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Urban Rural Action | Washington, DC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Diaspora Health LLC | Philadelphia, PA | $20,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Positive Sum Inc | Dover, DE | $20,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| American Governance Foundation Inc | San Francisco, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| American Press Institute Inc | Arlington, VA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Accelerate Sf Inc | San Francisco, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Amaterra Tech | Frisco, TX | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Arch Rift | New Port Richey, FL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Biocompute Inc | Dover Kent, DE | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Civilization Works | Albany, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Faces and Voices of Recovery Tri-County Inc | Lake Wylie, SC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mawazo Institute | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mediacom Inc | Washington, DC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Plymouth Street Inc | San Francisco, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Prophecy Cre Inc | San Francisco, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Regional Plan Association Inc | New York, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Stego Ventures Inc | Roswell, GA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Counteroffensive Media Worldwide | Washington, DC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| University of Denver | Denver, CO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Western Carolina University | Cullowhee, NC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Residency Inc | San Francisco, CA | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Wabash College | Crawfordsvlle, IN | $17,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Formtofile Inc Dba Trovbase | Saint Anne, IL | $17,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| University of Illinois Foundation | Champaign, IL | $16,467 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Microvessel Inc | Los Altos Hills, CA | $15,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Center for Strange Works Inc | Monroeville, OH | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Canary Academy Online Inc | Midlothian, VA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Emittance Inc | San Francisco, CA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Glc Empowerment Center | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | Rochester, NY | $11,111 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Kura Technologies Inc | Boston, MA | $10,625 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Archbridge Institute | Washington, DC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ctdata Collaborative Inc | Hartford, CT | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Good Kid Production | Richmond, VA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Hispanic Leadership Foundation | Washington, DC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation | Morgantown, WV | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lee University | Cleveland, TN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Panacea Worldwide Technologies Inc | Cambridge, MA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Pink Inference Co | Huntington Woods, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tholos Foundation | Washington, DC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Minertti | Doral, FL | $8,600 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Young Voices | Washington, DC | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| West Virginia Univ Foundation Inc | Morgantown, WV | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
29 of 178 (16%) 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 the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Yale University
University Research & Teaching /Education Grants - Kyiv School of Economics
Research and Education Grants - George Mason University
Student development/education grant - George Mason University Foundation
University Research & Teaching / Education Grants
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 104 of 178 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 40 | $12.8M | $175,000 |
| 2021 | 58 | $8,183,895 | $38,057 |
| 2022 | 68 | $6,740,741 | $40,440 |
| 2023 | 50 | $3,468,196 | $25,000 |
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
22% of its giving went to organizations in California. 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.
Down to the city
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $50,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in California.
- 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
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Mercatus Center Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 34 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 16 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: 3434 Washington Blvd 4TH Floor, Arlington, VA, 22201.
EIN 54-1436224 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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