GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

The Heritage Foundation

Washington, DC · EIN 23-7327730. Reported 57 grants totalling $11.9M to 46 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

46organizations funded
$100,000median reported grant
$11.9Mgranted, 2021-2024
32%of grantees funded again the next year
29%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 Heritage Foundation, the IRS classifies it under public & societal benefit rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE W050) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 46 distinct organizations, with 29% 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. 32% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $100,000. Half of what it reported fell between $50,000 and $150,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $3,500,000. 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
2 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
9 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
13 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
23 grants
$250,000 Or More
10 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
Daily Signal InstituteWashington, DC$3,500,000112024
Heritage Action for AmericaWashington, DC$1,100,000332024
170 Freedom Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee IncMilwaukee, WI$1,000,000112024
Trump Vance Inaugural Committee IncWest Palm Beach, FL$1,000,000112024
Forge Leadership NetworkDayton, OH$500,000332024
Personnel Policy Operations IncWashington, DC$500,000112024
Vote for AmericaEnglewood, CO$500,000112024
American Movement FoundationWashington, DC$305,000112024
Edmund Burke Foundation IncWashington, DC$250,000112024
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs IncOklahoma City, OK$250,000222024
Concerned Women for AmericaAlexandria, VA$225,000222024
Ready Willing & Working IncWashington, DC$161,000442024
The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public PolicyRound Hill, VA$150,000112022
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation IncWashington, DC$150,000112022
State Government Leadership FoundationWashington, DC$105,000332024
Alliance Defending FreedomScottsdale, AZ$100,000112022
American Accountability FoundationWashington, DC$100,000112024
Association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists inFort Wayne, IN$100,000112024
Center for Christian VirtueColumbus, OH$100,000112024
Claremont Inst for the Study of Statesmanship & Polit PhilosophyClaremont, CA$100,000112024
Communio FoundationAlexandria, VA$100,000112023
Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy StudiesAlexandria, VA$100,000112022
Feds 4 Med Freedom IncReno, NV$100,000112024
Immigration Accountability ProjectGulfport, MS$100,000112024
Independent Womens ForumWinchester, VA$100,000112022
John Locke Foundation IncRaleigh, NC$100,000112024
National Association of ScholarsNew York, NY$100,000112023
Speech First IncWashington, DC$100,000112023
State Financial Officers Foundation IncShawnee, KS$100,000112022
Student Free Press AssociationHillsdale, MI$100,000112024
Georgia Center for Opportunity IncPeachtree Cor, GA$75,000112022
Pelican Institute for Public PolicyNew Orleans, LA$75,000112022
Texas Public Policy FoundationAustin, TX$75,000112022
Susan B Anthony List IncArlington, VA$65,000112022
Americans United for LifeWashington, DC$60,000112022
American ReformerDallas, TX$50,000112023
Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy IncCharleston, WV$50,000112023
Ethics and Public Policy Center IncWashington, DC$50,000112024
Samaritans PurseBoone, NC$50,000112024
Save Our AlliesCedar Park, TX$50,000112024
The Institute for Family StudiesCharlottesvle, VA$50,000112024
Moms for Liberty IncIndn Hbr Bch, FL$25,000112022
Nevada Policy Research InstituteLas Vegas, NV$25,000112024
Students for Fair Admissions IncArlington, VA$25,000112023
American College of PediatriciansAtlanta, GA$10,000112023
Capitol Hill Christian AcademyWashington, DC$10,000112023

6 of 46 (13%) 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.

It also reported 6 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 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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 38 of 46 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.

Public & Societal Benefit
8 orgs
Education
8 orgs
Civil Rights
7 orgs
Human Services
4 orgs
Religion
3 orgs
Arts & Culture
2 orgs
Health Care
1 org
Youth Development
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20212$115,000$57,500
202216$1,641,000$87,500
202313$1,465,000$50,000
202426$8,720,000$100,000

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

54% 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
$6.4M
Florida
$1.0M
Wisconsin
$1.0M
Virginia
$815K
Ohio
$600K
Colorado
$500K
Oklahoma
$250K
Texas
$175K

Down to the city

Washington, DC
$6.4M
Milwaukee, WI
$1.0M
West Palm Beach, FL
$1.0M
Dayton, OH
$500K
Englewood, CO
$500K
Alexandria, VA
$425K

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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 Fund28 shared recipientsDonors Trust Inc24 shared recipientsNatl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc22 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc22 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program19 shared recipientsThe Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc15 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 $100,000 -- 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 public & societal benefit in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Heritage Foundation'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 23 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 3 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: 214 Massachusetts Ave Ne, Washington, DC, 20002.

EIN 23-7327730 · 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.