GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

American Psychological Foundation

Washington, DC · EIN 52-6051733. Reported 43 grants totalling $1,424,422 to 38 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

38organizations funded
$20,000median reported grant
$1,424,422granted, 2021-2024
40%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For American Psychological Foundation, the IRS classifies it under social science rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE V030) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 38 distinct organizations, with 40% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $20,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $5,200 and the largest $224,890. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
27 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
8 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
1 grant
$100,000 - $250,000
4 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
American Psychological AssociationWashington, DC$569,676442024
Apf Access LLCWashington, DC$128,875112024
Washington UniversitySt Louis, MO$39,000212024
Palo Alto University IncPalo Alto, CA$34,000112024
Coalition for the Common GoodYellow Spgs, OH$30,545112024
Childrens Hospital Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA$29,497112024
Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT$28,000112024
Rector & Visitors of the University of VirginiaCharlottesvle, VA$25,000112024
Texas Tech UniversityLubbock, TN$25,000112024
University of DenverDenver, CO$25,000112024
University of MiamiCoral Gables, FL$25,000112024
Trustees of Indiana UniversityDetroit, MI$22,500112024
Emory UniversityAtlanta, GA$22,440112024
American UniversityWashington, DC$22,332112024
Pacific UniversityForest Grove, OR$22,000112024
Regents Univ of CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA$22,000112024
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$21,920112024
The Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisUrbana, IL$21,000112024
Apa Division 17Washington, DC$20,000112024
Rhode Island HospitalProvidence, RI$20,000112024
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & ScienceNorth Chicago, IL$20,000112024
The Ohio State UniversityColumbus, OH$20,000112024
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel Hill, NC$20,000112024
University of RochesterRochester, NY$20,000112024
Washington State UniversityRenton, WA$20,000112024
Board of the University of AlabamaTuscaloosa, AL$19,814112024
San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco, CA$19,000112024
Utah State UniversityLogan, UT$18,717222024
Northwestern UniversityEvanston, IL$15,000112024
Old Dominion University Research FoundationNorfolk, VA$15,000112024
Seattle Childrens HospitalSeattle, WA$15,000112024
Western Kentucky UniversityBowling Green, KY$15,000112024
Rutgers the State UniversityPiscataway, NJ$12,000112024
Academics for the Advancement of Psychodynamic PsychologyNew York, NY$10,000112024
Cornell UniversityIthaca, NY$10,000112024
Vanderbilt University Medical CenterNashville, TN$10,000112024
University of Maryland 7809College Park, MD$5,906112024
Marine Biological LaboratoryWoods Hole, MA$5,200112021

2 of 38 (5%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 15 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 25 of 38 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Education
15 orgs
Health Care
5 orgs
Social Science
1 org
Recreation & Sports
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Mental Health
1 org
Science & Technology
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20212$65,150$32,575
20222$125,182$62,591
20231$168,371$168,371
202438$1,065,719$20,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

52% of its giving went to organizations in District of Columbia. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

District of Columbia
$741K
California
$104K
Illinois
$56K
Ohio
$51K
Virginia
$40K
New York
$40K
Missouri
$39K
Tennessee
$35K

Down to the city

Washington, DC
$741K
Los Angeles, CA
$51K
St Louis, MO
$39K
Palo Alto, CA
$34K
Yellow Spgs, OH
$31K
New Haven, CT
$28K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

The Trustees of Columbia University9 shared recipientsWashington University8 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund8 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program8 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust8 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc6 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $20,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in District of Columbia.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from American Psychological Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 37 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 750 First Street Ne, Washington, DC, 20002.

EIN 52-6051733 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.