Qualifying distribution
What counts toward a private foundation’s annual payout requirement: grants paid, reasonable administrative expenses of grantmaking, and certain asset purchases used directly for charitable purposes. Investment management costs do not count.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Qualifying distributions
In detail
The inclusion of administrative expenses is why grants alone are usually below five percent of assets. A foundation with staff is meeting part of its requirement by employing them.
The distinction between grantmaking administration and investment management is where the line is drawn, and it is drawn in the filing rather than left to description.
Against the giving figures we publish
`giving_total`, `giving_count` and `giving_median` describe grants, from the filing, for a stated year. A qualifying distribution total is a wider figure including expenses. We do not publish the wider figure, and we do not present the narrower one as if it were the payout — which would overstate how much of a foundation’s five percent is available to applicants.
How GrantTrove stores it
- Giving figures are read from the filing named in `data_source` and dated with `data_year`, and none of them is computed from another.
- Where a filing is missing, the profile says so rather than showing a zero, because a zero would assert the foundation gave nothing.
Common questions
Do salaries count toward payout?
Reasonable grantmaking administration does. Investment management does not.
Do you show qualifying distributions?
No. We publish grant figures from the filing, dated.
Why is giving below five percent of assets?
Because expenses count toward the requirement and grants are only part of it.