[OC] Ich habe 177.000 US-amerikanische Stiftungssteuererklärungen (Formular 990) analysiert – das oberste 1 % der Stiftungen kontrolliert 71 % aller wohltätigen Spenden

Data source: IRS Form 990 filings from 177,247 grantmaking foundations in the U.S., compiled from publicly available tax records.

Tools: Python (pandas for data processing, matplotlib for visualization), PostgreSQL for querying the dataset.

Some key findings that stood out:

– The top 1% of foundations (just 1,773 organizations) control 71.4% of all charitable giving. The bottom 50% (88,600 foundations) account for only 0.6%.

– Nonprofit CEO/ED median pay ranges from $36K at orgs under $500K budget to $398K at $50M+ orgs. The gap between average and median grows significantly at larger orgs, suggesting a few very high earners pull the average up.

– „Philanthropy & Grantmaking“ is the largest cause area by total giving ($481B), which makes sense since that includes community foundations and donor-advised funds that redistribute to other causes.

– California and New York dominate by total giving, but Washington state punches way above its weight relative to number of foundations (3,351 foundations, $63.5B in giving) — largely driven by the Gates Foundation and other tech-wealth philanthropy.

Happy to answer questions about the data or methodology.