Arizona is home to approximately 1,231 active grantmakers, organizations that make grants to other organizations (or individuals) as a key aspect of their charitable mission.
The term grantmaker spans across categories, as several different kinds of nonprofit organizations make grants. The best way to categorize grantmakers is by the main source of their income, whether it is coming from corporations, private sources such as a family or an individual or from public contributions.
Corporate giving data are the most difficult to collect. Some corporations opt to create a nonprofit organization, classified as a corporate foundation, to direct their charitable contributions to other nonprofits. However some corporations may choose to give through a corporate giving program or through federated giving programs such as United Way. This report focuses only on grants provided through corporate foundations, therefore the corporate giving numbers are under-reported.
Top grantmakers
The largest grantmaker in grant dollars given in 2018 was Valley of the Sun United Way, which is a public charity. Virginia Piper Trust is the largest private foundation in grants given in Arizona and in 2018 it ranked 9th in grants given.
From the corporate foundations, PetSmart Charities tops the list with $42 million in grants, followed by Freeport-McMoran Foundation with $15.16 million.
Notes: Total grants reported for the top grantmakers include only cash-contributions. With the objective to make a better comparison among grantmakers, in-kind or other non-cash contributions have been excluded.
We analyzed a list of over 2,000 potential grantmakers from the IRS, NCCS and The Foundation Directory databases. 138 organizations with zero or not reported giving/assets/grants were excluded from our interactive charts. Additional organizations excluded from this list include credit unions, food banks, hospitals and a few others that upon review of their Forms 990, we determined are not traditional grantmakers. We also found organizations that are public charities but occasionally issue small one-time grants. Approximately 700 organizations were also removed because there are no records of the grants they have made, meaning all their giving is likely for non-cash contributions (ie. food banks) and/or operational expenses.
Single support organizations
Single support organizations are also known as supporting organizations or single support foundations. Although they give grant dollars, they are categorized separately due to their exclusivity. In contrast to grantmakers that support multiple nonprofits, the single support organization exists to financially support one designated nonprofit or educational institution.
