Broadly speaking, a foundation is a nonprofit corporation or a charitable trust that makes grants to organizations, institutions, or individuals for charitable purposes such as science, education, culture, and religion. There are two foundation types: private foundations and grantmaking public charities.

The resources you need will depend on whether you want donations to your scholarship fund to qualify for tax deductions.

Candid defines a private foundation as a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization having a principal fund managed by its own trustees or directors. Public charities generally derive their funding or support primarily from the public, receiving grants from individuals, government, and private foundations. Grantseekers should know the difference.

It is essential for nonprofits to know about the public support test, because receiving the majority of funding from a single source could change a nonprofit’s IRS status from public charity to private foundation.

IRS regulations prohibit 501(c)(3) public charities from specific types of activities and require certain levels of reporting and public disclosure.

This article has a number of different ways to find the words you need.

A payout requirement is the minimum amount that private foundations must spend each year for charitable purposes.

Are you thinking of starting a grantmaking foundation? Learn about the different types of foundations, find resources to get you started, and discover some alternative paths.

Candid's research staff routinely reports on a variety of foundation and corporation giving data.

Most foundations are set up to have a perpetual life-span, spending out only the interests from their investments while keeping the initial endowment intact. Other foundations choose to have a limited life-span. Regardless of the reason for the termination, foundations dissolve by "spending down" their assets in compliance with both state and federal law.

Foundation Center joined forces with GuideStar in 2019 to become Candid. Candid connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to do it. It serves grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the public.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to access Candid's collection of eBooks and audiobooks.

You can also help us ensure that the information we present about your grantmaking is current and correct! This article describes how.

Yes, your nonprofit or foundation should have a website. It is one of the best ways to tell your own story accurately and in a context of your own design.

According to the Council on Foundations, private foundations, corporations, and public charities can have great flexibility in their response to a "qualified disaster."

It is always a good idea to know about other organizations and funders working in the same areas as you. You may wish to collaborate, check out an innovative program, or model a grant after another organization’s efforts. This is also a good way to connect with thought leaders in your areas of interest.

Get details about Candid’s core tools that grantees and applicants typically use to identify potential funding partners.

Scanning the field for knowledge about issues, program areas, lessons learned, and collaborations is critical to understanding your role in moving the social sector forward.

Because transparency is so critical to improving philanthropy, Candid has a number of tools designed to help funders achieve greater levels of transparency in a variety of contexts, including improving overall institutional transparency, collective sector data, grants data, and overall sector knowledge.