Guide · 4 min read

Why average grant size misleads small nonprofits

One huge endowment check can make a foundation look impossible. The average rises. The median barely moves. If your budget is a few hundred thousand a year, the average is the wrong number to trust.

What goes wrong

Directories and paid tools often sort or describe funders by average award. A single multimillion gift pulls that average up. You spend a week writing for a funder whose typical check is still in the low thousands, or worse, one that never funds orgs your size.

What to use instead

Median. Half the grants are at or below this amount. It survives outliers.

Frequency. A family trust that pays 500 small grants a year is a different animal from a funder that writes two large checks.

Prior grantees like you. Who already got paid in your cause and state matters more than brochure language.

A concrete picture

Across the Funder Trail index the average grant looks large. The median sits near $3,500, and most foundation grants are $10k or less. That is the world small nonprofits, churches, and local orgs actually live in.

How to act on this

1. Pick your cause and state.

2. Rank foundations by realistic check size and whether they already funded similar orgs.

3. Ignore vanity averages until the shortlist is real.

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