Sunlight Giving

Over the last year, our average grant amount continued to trend back up as we finalized a two-year process of deploying grant increases on the heels of responsive grantmaking during the pandemic. Further, a record 92% of grant dollars were multi-year, reflecting our long-term approach for core grantee partners and their commitment to the community. We also began reimagining the approach with our Strategic Opportunities portfolio with an eye toward more flexibly integrating some of our exploratory grantmaking across our work.

In 2023, we returned to our regular budget practices after the 2020-2022 budget years in which we significantly ramped up our responsive grantmaking related to the pandemic. At the same time, we began a two-year project of increasing grant amounts across our portfolio as many partners faced declining public and private sources of funding while rising costs from inflation challenged organizations and households alike. The average grant amount across our portfolio rose even as the number of grants returned to pre-pandemic levels.