GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

The Brookings Institution

Washington, DC · EIN 53-0196577. Reported 64 grants totalling $6,772,570 to 39 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

39organizations funded
$58,999median reported grant
$6,772,570granted, 2021-2023
74%of grantees funded again the next year
35%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 The Brookings Institution, the IRS classifies it under social science rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE V220) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 35% 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. 74% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $58,999. Half of what it reported fell between $29,433 and $93,750; the smallest was $15,000 and the largest $1,234,592. 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.
$10,000 - $25,000
5 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
18 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
28 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
9 grants
$250,000 Or More
4 grants

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
Results for Development Institute IncWashington, DC$2,388,873332023
Center for Economic InclusionSt Paul, MN$504,318222023
The New SchoolNew York, NY$375,000222022
Urban InstituteWashington, DC$323,811432023
Cities Gps LLCWashington, DC$240,000222023
Fin Business LLCPiscataway, NJ$234,000222023
Rm Donahue ConsultingTacoma, WA$213,000222023
American UniversityWashington, DC$204,687332023
Gallup IncWashington, DC$177,000222023
Howard UniversityWashington, DC$165,000332023
Economic ArchitectureWashington, DC$150,000112022
George Washington UniversityAshburn, VA$130,000222022
Enterprise Community Partners IncColumbia, MD$125,000222023
Regents of the University of California at San DiegoLa Jolla, CA$125,000222022
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy ResearchWashington, DC$102,182112023
Washington UniversitySt Louis, MO$100,289222023
Global ImpactWashington, DC$90,000112023
National Corporate Housing IncGreenwood Village, CO$75,096112023
Cincinnati USA Regional ChamberCincinnati, OH$66,666112023
Civic Council of Greater Kansas CityKansas City, MO$66,666112023
Greater Akron Chamber of CommerceAkron, OH$66,666112023
Greater Richmond Chamber of CommerceRichmond, VA$66,666112023
Greater St Louis Inc FoundationSaint Louis, MO$66,666112023
Prosper FoundationBirmingham, AL$66,666112023
Whitehead Advisory Services LLCShaker Heights, OH$58,998112023
Lincoln Institute of Land PolicyPhoenix, AZ$56,400112023
Emory UniversityAtlanta, GA$51,000222023
University of Maryland College ParkCollege Park, MD$51,000222023
Grandmont Rosedale Development CorporationDetroit, MI$50,000222023
Lawfare InstituteWashington, DC$50,000112022
Neighborhood Progress IncCleveland, OH$50,000222023
New York UniversityNew York, NY$50,000112022
Young 1OVE FoundationAustin, TX$41,900222022
University of California Berkeley FoundationBerkeley, CA$41,409112021
United Way of Central IowaDes Moines, IA$34,510112023
Child Trends IncorporatedRockville, MD$30,000222022
Rowan UniversityGlassboro, NJ$29,668112023
Catholic University of AmericaWashington, DC$29,433112021
International Food Policy Research InstituteWashington, DC$25,000112023

20 of 39 (51%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 25 of 39 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
10 orgs
Community Improvement
3 orgs
International Affairs
2 orgs
Social Science
2 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
2 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Health Care
1 org
Housing & Shelter
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202111$1,866,421$41,409
202223$2,508,957$55,000
202330$2,397,192$66,666

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

58% of its giving went to organizations in District of Columbia. 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.

District of Columbia
$3.9M
Minnesota
$504K
New York
$425K
New Jersey
$264K
Ohio
$242K
Missouri
$234K
Washington
$213K
Maryland
$206K

Down to the city

Washington, DC
$3.9M
St Paul, MN
$504K
New York, NY
$425K
Piscataway, NJ
$234K
Tacoma, WA
$213K
Ashburn, VA
$130K

Find more funders like The Brookings Institution

We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc13 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund11 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust10 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program9 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc9 shared recipientsJohns Hopkins University8 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 $58,999 -- 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 District of Columbia.
  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 District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding international affairs in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Brookings Institution'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 20 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 10 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: 1775 Massachusetts Avenue Nw, Washington, DC, 20036.

EIN 53-0196577 · 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.